Fate's Eye
by Lady Irish Rose
Summary: AU Set during TMR.-COMPLETE-How would the movie have been different if the O'Connells had a teenaged daughter and she was the Vampire Slayer? Curious to find out? I was too. BEING REVAMPED!
1. Dreams Always Start Something

**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything in this story save a few characters-including the protagonist. The original plot, characters, and ideas belong to Stephen Sommers and Universal Studios. I used the shortened novel of the movie as a guide and that book is written by John Whitman. So anything taken from there belongs to him, but I changed stuff around quite a bit. The concept of Vampire slayer, the Watchers Council, and all that good stuff belong to Joss Whedon. The reason this isn't in the BtVS xover section is because Buffy and Co. do not make an appearance. There, I believe you have no grounds on which to sue me. Don't bother anyway, cuz I have nothing you would want.

**A/N: May, 2010-THIS STORY IS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING FULLY REVAMPED-chapters will have dates posted at the end of when they were edited and revised!**

I have pushed the timeline of all events in the first movie back a couple years. It may make no sense, but just go with it. My fic, my rules. It's slightly AU anyway. Since The Mummy Returns takes place in 1933 and Elizabeth is 15, that would mean The Mummy would have had to take place in 1917. I have decided to make it early in 1917, making Elizabeth's date of birth in late 1917. If you have no idea what a Vampire Slayer is, then, um, just ask and I'll explain. Although I'm sure most of you have at least heard of the American television drama called, _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_. Don't use the movie as a reference. Seriously, don't. And another thing, this will not be a Mary Sue. I have found a loophole in making strong, tough girls that can pack a punch. Make them slayers. Then they just have to fight well. Hehe. Elizabeth does have a personality, don't worry.

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**Chapter One: **Dreams Always Start Something

The door to the O'Connell manor slowly swung inward as a slender figure carefully stepped inside. She shut it very quietly, not wanting to disturb any sleeping occupants within. She was dressed in dark clothes that easily camouflaged her in the shadows of the night. Her long dark hair was twisted into a cable tied at the nape of her neck. The darkness was pricked here and there by lights from the grounds. Dim illumination threw the girl's features into shadow. Before moving further towards the winding staircase, she listened keenly for any sounds of movement. It would not do for the master and mistress of the manor to find she was up at so late an hour nor that she had been gone from her bedroom for hours since dusk. And, being that it was dark and she was dressed to exploit it, it would not be remiss to expect the master of the house to mistake her for an intruder.

But, luckily, the master of the house had taught his daughter very well. She could move as silently as a lioness stalking her prey. She was also quite adept at maneuvering around in the blackness of night. It was nothing at all to cross to the staircase and silently ascend into the hallway and to her bedroom door.

In the safety of her own quarters, she switched on her lamps. Her eyes stung at the sudden brightness, but quickly adjusted. She quickly examined herself for any telltale signs of minor injuries. She would have to scour away all evidence of her midnight escapade before climbing back into bed to steal a few hours of sleep before daybreak. Peeling off her dark clothing and throwing them in a pile of clothes to be washed, she studiously inspected her white, naked skin. There was a gash on her stomach, but it was superficial and already beginning to knit. It would also be easy to conceal. The purple bruise on her forearm, however, would not be quite as easy to conceal in such warm weather. She would either have to use copious amounts of makeup to cover it, or she would have to concoct a story of carelessly banging her arm against something.

This had been her nightly routine for over a year now. At fifteen years old, Elizabeth O'Connell could safely say she was quite different from other girls of her age and status. Where other fifteen-year-old girls of the upper class were soundly sleeping in their opulent bedrooms, safe in their dreams of dresses, dancing, courting, she was out prowling back alleys, cemeteries, crypts, and other less reputable places. Where other girls were being groomed to catch the eyes of suitors in the hopes they might marry at or above their current station, she was being trained to be a deadly, efficient hunter. And the prey was of the most...abnormal sort.

A little over a year ago, at the age of fourteen, Elizabeth had been Called as the Vampire Slayer.

Elizabeth had almost laughed at the apparent irony or lack of irony (it depended on how one looked at it) in her situation. She was the daughter of Richard and Evelyn O'Connell, born not very long after the couple had narrowly escaped death in Egypt. Her parents, along with her mother's brother Jonathan and a desert warrior named Ardeth Bay, had defeated a mummy called Imhotep. He had been a High Priest back when Ancient Egypt had been in its prime, and, of course, not so ancient. They had saved the world from the chaos and destruction Imhotep would have wrought.

As a child, she had believed in those stories with a child's unquestioning innocence. As she grew older, she began to see them as nothing more than monstrously exaggerated tales meant only to entertain and frighten at her bedside. Her parents, oddly enough, did nothing to defend their stories and let Elizabeth have her semi-disbelief. A part of her had always known it was true. There was simply no reason for her parents and uncle (well, perhaps her uncle) to lie about such things. And there was far too much veracity in the solemn eyes of her parents, in the secretive glances which spoke volumes more than words ever could of the things they had witnessed. Things not meant for mortal eyes.

The semi-disbelief disappeared the day she found out she had been Chosen to slay beings far more ancient than anything her parents had ever crossed. Her parents had saved the world once, albeit from an apocalypse partially of their making. Now it fell to her to safeguard humanity from a more constant threat from the forces of evil.

She glided into her private lavatory to wash the cut on her stomach. She could not even remember receiving it, though it was common for her to not notice injuries, even more serious ones, until well after she had gotten them. She applied a pressure bandage from her private store of medical supplies, knowing that within a few days there would be no evidence of the wound at all.

Catching sight of her nude reflection in the mirror, she let loose a deep sigh. Elizabeth knew full well she was the very image of her mother. Her gleaming dark locks, the delicate shape of her face, and her dark blue eyes were all shaped in the guise of Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell. There was very little in the girl that resembled her father in a physical way. Her resemblance to Rick O'Connell ran somewhat deeper. Before her Watcher, the man who trained and guided her as the Slayer, had even handed her a wooden stake, her father had already trained her to defend herself. His influence was stamped on her in the way she regarded every problem and situation with calculating caution. She may have looked like her mother, but Elizabeth OConnell was her fathers daughter through and through.

She marveled at the graceful curve of her hips blossoming from her narrow waist. Her breasts were fuller than she could remember, and her fair skin was subtly sculpted with sleek muscle. Her body was becoming less of a girl's body with each passing day. Elizabeth certainly felt like a girl no longer, though she was not certain she felt like a woman. She supposed the more generic terms of _adult_ or _grown-up _were more appropriate for description. Well and so, shouldering the responsibility of defending the world from evil was no mean feat. It was far too much to hope that the fifteen-year-old would be able to hold onto childhood for very long with such a vocation.

A girl, a woman, a warrior, a daughter, a sister, a niece...Elizabeth O'Connell occupied many roles, and sometimes she feared being torn apart by them. She had not told her parents about her Calling. She never planned on telling them. Let them believe their daughter was a normal teenager going through all the prickly stages of adolescence they had suffered. Let them believe she had a future beyond the age of eighteen. She could not be so cruel as to rip that quaint illusion from them. They had a future in her younger brother Alex. What could fate possibly have in store for that insufferably precocious and all-too-canny eight-year-old that could be more perilous than her own?

She donned a thin nightgown made of silk bordered by lace and brushed out her long dark hair. She would bathe after sleeping, for her bed was calling to her insistently. A familiar, and not wholly unwelcome, languor was suffusing her limbs. She had hunted vampires tonight and her hunt had ended successfully. An entire nest, which had been picking off impoverished workers, had been completely destroyed. The adrenaline surge from the hunt had been glorious; her blood had practically sung as she carried out her gory task. Now she would give her body its due hours of rest before rising to run the cycle anew.

Elizabeth had just snapped off her lamp when voices outside her door gave her pause. The voices belonged to her parents. Their room was right down the hall from her room, though it lay on the opposite side. Normally, she would have just left it be and snuggled under her covers. But something about their separate tones made the hair on the back of her neck rise with foreboding. Elizabeth knew well when to heed her instinctsand they were telling her that something was amiss.

"Honey, they're just dreams. Theres no reason for us to just pack our bags and hightail it to Egypt because you've had a few dreams", Rick OConnell pleaded, his voice thick with weariness and concern. His American accent was still true to its form even though he had lived in London for over fifteen years.

"Rick, they are _not_ just dreams. I can't explain it, but I know in my bones that these are something different. Why would I keep dreaming of the same thing? Why would they feel more like...more like..." Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell's voice was strained with conviction and confusion alike.

_More like what? _Elizabeth wondered. She knew what it was to have dreams that were not mere dreams, and often times she had trouble telling the difference between the two. Slayers often experienced prophetic dreams, but that did not explain her mothers predicament.

"More like what?" Her father asked. Elizabeth could picture his handsome features, drawn by worry, but tempered by sensibility. He was not one to rush into things, but she knew her mother could be very persuasive.

"Memories", her mother whispered, her voice so low it was only due to Elizabeth's preternatural sense of hearing that she detected it.

"Memories? What do you mean by memories?" her father asked, his tone colored with unease.

Elizabeth frowned as she pondered over those words. Were it not for her parents' peculiar history with the ancient nation of Egypt, the young Slayer would probably be quicker to dismiss these strange dreams. Would that she knew the content of these dreams so she might be able to come to her own conclusions, but she did not want her parents to know she had overheard them. If they had wanted her to know, likely they would have told her already.

Perhaps she could speak of them to her Watcher. She had already told him about her parents deeds in Egypt. He had been suitably surprised and impressed by the tale, and far quicker to accept it than Elizabeth had expected. Dream interpretation definitely lay more within his area of expertise than hers.

She heard her father sigh in acute resignation. He must have been losing sleep over these dreams, and she knew he would do it if it meant restoring a measure of peace to her mother's anxious soul. Elizabeth knew he would give into her mother's wishes, for he was hard put to deny the woman anything. She doubted she had ever seen a couple more devoted to each other than her parents. Needless to say, she did not hold out much hope for experiencing the same.

"What about the Lizzie and Alex?" she heard him ask.

_Yes, what about us?_ Elizabeth was not certain she felt all that comfortable with her parents trotting into some Egyptian tomb or pyramid at the behest of bizarre dreams. Knowing what she knew about Egypt and her parents, she did not feel she could willingly be left behind. She could feel a sinister air cloaking this entire situation. Something about this did not sit well with her.

"Well, we've taken them to Egypt before. Why not bring them with us? It is summer holiday, so they won't be missing any school", her mother replied.

She could practically hear her father's thoughts before he even spoke aloud. He was worried this excursion might involve some danger.

"Sweetheart, I don't know. I'm starting to get a bad feeling about all of this," her father said.

"Come on, darling, this could be a lovely holiday for us. I know how you hate being cooped up here in London. It could be a nice family adventure," her mother urged softly.

Her father was probably grinding his teeth with indecision, torn by his conflicting thoughts and feelings.

"All right, well bring them. I guess we'll tell them in the morning," her father conceded. "Alex will be excited, at least."

That certainly was no understatement. Elizabeth's eight-year-old brother took after their mother in his never-ending fascination and love for the desert country of Egypt. Their mother had even taught him how to read some of the written language of the Egyptians, and how to speak some of the language. Elizabeth had tried once when she was a child, but she just did not have the same blood-born affinity for Egypt. She did appreciate the harsh beauty of the Nile river valley, and the ancient solemnity of the crumbling temples, pyramids, and statues. She had a deep respect for the power and glory that had once resided there in that desert landscape. Her maternal grandmother had been an Egyptian, though likely not a full-blooded one considering Elizabeth and her brother looked thoroughly Caucasian.

Her parents drifted down the hallway, still speaking in soft, but slightly agitated, tones. They were likely heading downstairs to the kitchen for tea (or, in her father's case, some whiskey). Elizabeth contemplated creeping after them so she could continue to eavesdrop, but dismissed the notion almost immediately. Her parents had already said they were going to tell her and Alex about it in the morning, so there was no use prying into their private conversation any longer.

She padded across the thickly carpeted floor to her canopied bed. A small, furry, black ball was curled up on her pillow. Elizabeth smiled and stroked the furry ball until a head popped up and issued a soft _mew_.

"Sorry, love, but that's where my head is supposed to go," she admonished affectionately. The cat purred and nuzzled her mistress's hand. As if knowing what her mistress wanted, she uncurled, stretched out her limbs and sauntered aside.

Elizabeth slid under the covers. Her cat re-situated herself into the indistinct ball of black fur and snuggled up against her mistress's abdomen. The girl reached down and petted the animal. "Well, Ebony, looks like Im going to be going away for a bit. And it sounds to me like Mum and Dad are going to get themselves in a lovely spot of trouble, don't you think?" Her cat, obviously, could not be bothered with supplying an answer to that. She just continued to purr languidly as Elizabeth scratched behind her ears.

Though her body and mind were exhausted, sleep was long in coming for the fifteen-year-old. Thick knots of dread were forming in her restless stomach, keeping sleep at bay till just about the time the faintest lights of dawn started to streak the dark sky. She dreamed, but the dreams were full of words she could not understand and images which could not be comprehended. When she awoke some hours later into the morning, the dreams faded from her memory like the inscription on an ancient tombstone being eroded by time.

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_Edited/Revised: May 11, 2010_


	2. History Repeats Itself

Hmmmm. Only one review. Not terribly encouraging, but ah, the story's already mostly written. Thanks to **Faerie of Egypt**.

**Chapter Two Title: **History Repeats Itself

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Prowling through the maze of catacombs and chambers of the ancient Egyptian temple Rick O'Connell felt boredom pressing down on his initial sense of wariness. Why he had agreed to actually come to Egypt with his family because of a couple of dreams his wife was having he had no idea. Normally he would take that as a cue to stay away having learned a lesson about the mysterious and supernatural almost sixteen years ago. Unfortunately, saying no to Evelyn was extremely hard for anyone, even a hardened man such as himself, to do. _Must be where Elizabeth gets it_, he said to himself, referring to his and Evelyn's fifteen-year-old daughter.

Rick had good reason to have his doubts and suspicions about snooping through ancient Egyptian ruins. Almost sixteen years ago he, his wife (who had not been his wife at the time), and her brother, Jonathan, had confronted a resurrected mummy named Imhotep who had been buried alive and left to rot for over 3000 years. As a result of Evelyn's impetuous curiosity she had read from the Book of the Dead and unleashed the terror himself on the world. Fortunately, after a near sacrifice later she was able to render him mortal using the Book of Amon Ra and Rick was able to kill him.

Even after marriage and the birth of their two children they were still going back and forth between the North African country and their manor in London. Evelyn was in love with Egypt and it was in her blood so she couldn't stay away even if she almost destroyed the world and gotten killed. Rick admired that fearlessness in his wife, it was one of the things that made her so damn easy to fall in love with. Their eight-year-old son, Alex, had seemingly inherited his mother's fearlessness and passion for Egypt much to Rick's chagrin. The boy was constantly at the British Museum going through the collection of ancient Egyptian mummies, relics, and other random artifacts despite the O'Connell family having an impressive collection at home. Rick did have to admit that the look of pure wonderment and delight on his son's face when perusing through ruins in Egypt herself was almost worth the trip. Almost.

Elizabeth, however, was a different story. For looking so much like her mother the teenaged O'Connell was almost the complete opposite. She had not the fearlessness of Evelyn instead exhibiting the more cautious courage of her father. Often times she reminded him of a feline on the prowl with her senses always pealed and alert for danger and the way she appeared to be aware of everything. Rick regarded that aspect with a smug smirk. It was easy to tell who she had learned that from. Elizabeth liked Ancient Egypt well enough, but nowhere near to the degree of her mother and brother. _At least there's one kid I can count on not to go traipsing about in the bowels of Egyptian temples._ Come to think of it, if Rick were completely honest with himself his oldest child was a complete enigma to him most of the time. He had no idea what her goals and ambitions were in life. He had no idea what college she wanted to go to, what career she wanted to pursue. He had expected her to start discussing that with Evelyn and himself about those subjects by now, but she had never said a word. How strange.

All thoughts of Elizabeth were temporarily halted upon hearing the faint shuffling sound behind him. With a smooth, practiced motion he withdrew his twin revolvers resting in the holsters at his waste and spun around only to point both barrels directly at an eight-year-old boy.

His son let out a shriek of surprise and toppled backwards to the sandy floor.

"Alex?" Rick sputtered, securing his guns back in his waist holsters.

"What?" the small boy gasped, still a little shaken. "Afraid the Mummy had come after you again?"

Rick sighed and assumed the stance of the typical displeased parent: arms folded across the chest, head tilted slightly downward with a disgruntled scowl, and a tapping foot to add dramatic effect.

"What are you doing down here? I thought I told you to wait up in the temple," he chastised the boy.

"But Dad—"

"No buts, Alex! It's dangerous down here."

Alex stood to his full, non-impressive height and set his small face into an indignant frown. "You let Elizabeth come down here," he pointed out sullenly.

Rick cocked his head and groaned. "Your sister is fifteen, you're eight. Do the math."

"But Dad, I saw your tattoo!" Alex intoned, pulling at his father's hand and pointing to the downward pointing mariner's compass and upwards pointing falcon's wings that artfully depicted a pyramid. Nestled in the center was the ever open Eye of Horus.

"What?" Rick said in confusion.

"I saw your tattoo. Up on a wall by the entrance. It's a cartouche that looks just like it, with the pyramid and the eye and everything."

Rick shrugged and said, "Well, I'll take a look at that later, but you go back up to the temple and stay there."

"And do what?" Alex replied dryly, another pout forming on his face.

With another shrug Rick said, "I don't know. Surprise me."

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They were Egyptian princesses as far as Elizabeth could tell and they were engaged in hand-to-hand combat with sais. She stared at the carving with intrigue as she and her mother dusted off the sand and dust that thinly coated the sealed door. Her mother had frowned in confusion at the scene and when Elizabeth asked her about it Evelyn informed her daughter that it was an unusual scene for that particular time period. _I'll say,_ Elizabeth said to herself, _I didn't even know the Egyptians had sais. I ought to have Roland let me have a pair of his. They're nifty little buggers._

Elizabeth quelled the mounting panic within her body at being inside the bowels of a temple. She despised enclosed spaces, especially ones that were underground. Most of her fears lay on the basis of not having not enough room to move around in if an attack should occur. Yet, she was the dutiful daughter and figured she ought to aid her parents and possibly protect them if the dangers her senses spoke of were actually genuine. Her parents had told both her and her younger brother about the unleashing of Imhotep thanks to her mother's impetuousness. Elizabeth had always dismissed the story as just that, a story merely thought up for entertainment purposes. It sure did its work in giving her nightmares when she was younger. Ever since her Calling, however, she had changed her opinion on the story and became suspicious of every Egyptian relic her mother dragged home. It was bad enough she had to battle with recently dead guys, she really didn't fancy a brawl with a creature that was over 3000 years dead and boasted supernatural telekinetic powers and plague powers to boot. No thank you.

Her senses sent off a slight alarm and her pulse quickened when she saw a snake slithering on the floor. _Bloody hell! _Now that just wouldn't do. Snakes were vile creatures put upon this earth for the sole purpose of making Elizabeth squirm she reckoned. It crawled across her mother's boot and she let out something akin to a squeak. She may be the Slayer, but snakes were something she just didn't deal with. She stayed away from them.

"Mum," she whispered anxiously.

Evelyn looked down to see what was making her daughter so nervous and frowned when she saw the more poisonous variety of Egyptian snakes. She stuck her boot under its smooth, scaled body and said sternly, "Go away!" before flinging it towards the open entrance. Her husband, who had just been walking through, ducked and stared at her strangely.

"You're getting good at that," he said.

"Where did you get off to?" Evelyn queried.

"Oh Alex wanted to show me something. I swear that kid's getting more and more like you everyday," Rick replied in mock disgust.

"What was it he wanted to show you?" Elizabeth asked.

"Oh something about my tattoo being on a cartouche. I sent him back up to the temple and told him I'd look at it later," Rick answered. "Now, how are we doing here?"

Evelyn grinned and picked up two small tools, a hammer and a chisel. Right on cue both Rick and Elizabeth groaned. Like her father, Elizabeth was a bit on the impatient side and could just picture the state she would be in after having spent hours chipping away at a sealed door when a crowbar would do the trick in less than a minute if the right amount of strength was applied. Of course, if they were in a real hurry Elizabeth _could_ take advantage of her slayer strength and try to kick that sealed door right off its hinges or whatever held it there. It was obvious how very stupid of her that would be to do.

"Oh all right, we'll do it your way!" Evelyn acquiesced, handing her husband the crowbar.

"Thank you," Rick said.

Evelyn gripped Elizabeth's arm and the two ladies stepped back as Rick jammed the crowbar into the seam of the door and sent it to the ground with a WHAM! Dust and sand blew everywhere and the three O'Connells coughed slightly. The chamber beyond was littered with scorpions, snakes, and tarantulas. _Shit,_ Elizabeth silently cursed.

Her mother paid them no notice and was the first to step inside. While hopping around the tiny tomb guardians she said softly, "Ever since I had that dream. This place has been all I could think about."

"Yes and talk about," Elizabeth mumbled under her breath.

"Ever since you had that dream I haven't been able to get a decent night's sleep," Rick muttered.

"This place...it's so familiar. I know I've been here before, I can feel it," her mother breathed.

"Uh, honey. I hate to burst your bubble, but no one's been in here for over 3000 years," Rick said. "Except these guys, and they're dead." He gestured to the mummified humans in the chamber.

"He has a point, Mum. Are you quite sure you didn't indulge in some of Uncle Jon's whiskey?" Elizabeth pointed out.

Rick snorted and Evelyn scowled before grabbing onto a torch bracket and pulling it down. A secret passage was revealed and she looked back at her husband and daughter who were stunned speechless.

"Then how is I seem to know exactly where I'm going?" she asked smugly.

"Lucky guess?" Elizabeth deadpanned.

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Climbing from the catacombs to the temple Alex kicked at little drifts of sand in anger. Why couldn't he ever have any fun? Why was he always made to stay away from where his parents were working? Elizabeth got to do down there and she didn't even like Egypt as much as he did. Sure she was seven years older than him, but he could hold his own. It was so unfair.

He looked towards the mouse trap he had been building and scoffed. That was what he was reduced to. Building mousetraps above while the rest of his family got to explore down below.

The small boy froze when he heard voices that did not belong to his parents or his sister. As far as he knew they were the only ones at the temple and anyone else being here probably wasn't a good thing. He quickly looked around for a place to hide because all things considered, he was still only eight. The voices were getting closer and made all the more menacing by the echoes they caused. The stone passageways amplified their voices and Alex was able to get an inkling of who he was dealing with. The voices were hard and rough and sounded like the sort of men his parents would not appreciate him being around. When he set his eyes upon a forty-foot scaffolding he ran to it and climbed up. When he reached the top he flattened himself facedown on the wooden planks and cautiously peered over the edge.

Three men sauntered into the temple and Alex discerned that his suspicions were correct. These _were_ the sorts of men his parents wouldn't approve of. With wicked looking scimitars, guns tucked into their belts, and malicious smiles upon their faces Alex knew that they were not here for pleasure. He was in trouble.

The leader, a heavyset man named Red Lasher, looked around the temple coldly. The assorted artifacts and treasures were of no concern to him. What was going to get him money was killing off the O'Connells and getting the trinket he had been sent for. That was the only thing he cared about..

"Zis place is cursed," Red's muscular French companion, Jacques, declared ominously.

Red rolled his eyes and faced the two men. He sincerely hoped these two were worth their mettle because if they weren't then there would be two more killings to add to today's quota.

"All right, you two check out those things. See if it's here." He drew his pistol from his belt and declared in a menacing tone, "I'll sort out the O'Connells."

Alex gasped in horror. At first he figured that they were just grave robbers, but after hearing the man's words he knew he was wrong. They were here to kill his parents!

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Gripping her lighted torch to light the eerie catacomb Evelyn led her husband and daughter through the secret passageway. She gave herself a headache trying to remember where she had seen or read about this place and kept coming up with blanks. There was no book or hieroglyphic piece that she had combed over—and there were many—that had mentioned it, but it seemed so familiar to her and she didn't quite know why.

As the passageway winded into a wide chamber full of cobwebs and rotted furnishings the scene abruptly changed. Evelyn was frozen to the spot as the proverbial time machine went back four thousand years and the room ceased to look rotted and old and instead looked clean and sparkling and new. A young woman, an Egyptian princess Evelyn assumed by her dress, came out of a door along the far wall. Evelyn looked into the room and glimpsed upon two warriors standing on both sides of a small chest. The princess shut the door and turned the sundial that was on it: twice to the right, once to the left. As she turned to leave Evelyn tried to see into her face but the vision ended and she was back in the present. Rick and Elizabeth were staring at her with concern.

"Mum? You all right?"

Evelyn blinked a few times as if that would bring the vision back. She waved her torch around really fast causing Rick and Elizabeth to glance at each other in confusion and then back to Evelyn.

"You know, you swing that thing around fast enough you can write your name in the air," Rick quipped sarcastically.

"I just had a vision! It was like my dreams, but it was more real than that! I was actually here in ancient times!" Evelyn stammered in excitement.

Elizabeth's breath caught in her throat. Dreams were one thing and at least were a fairly normal occurrence, but visions were not to be trifled with. At first she had thought this was all imagined by her mother, but now she was receiving visions? Her senses started to tingle anew that something was up. Great timing. She was now beginning to wish she had heeded her initial apprehension before coming to Egypt.

"Okay, visions now? Dreams aren't that bad, but visions. They normally don't mean something good," Rick said. "Are you sure you're all right?"

Seeing the perturbed expressions on her husband's and daughter's faces she nodded emphatically. "I'm fine. Really."

"Well, if you were here four thousand years ago somehow, then perhaps you can tell us how to open this door. Maybe there's a secret way like that torch bracket to open the secret passageway," Elizabeth suggested.

Her father tried to open it with a crowbar to no avail and Elizabeth decided that whatever was in there perhaps should stay in there. She had a really bad feeling about whatever was beyond that door. Her mother, however, strode up to it and turned the sundial on it twice to the right and once to the left. With a hissing sound that sounded too much like snakes the door creaked open to the awestruck faces of the three O'Connells.

Rick was the first one to speak. "Okay, now you're starting to scare me."

Elizabeth nodded faintly. "That goes double for me."

Evelyn looked at the two and swallowed hard. "I'm starting to scare myself."

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Sprawled atop the scaffolding Alex anxiously spied upon the two men ransacking the temple. What was odd about their actions was that they weren't actually keeping the trinkets, they were studying them and then tossing them aside. They were looking for something.

The tall gangly one named Spivey grumbled in frustration, "Look at all this rubbish! It ain't bloody here, Jacques!"

The broader Frenchman glared at his partner and growled, "Keep looking! Zat is what we are paid to do!"

Alex reached behind his back to his back pocket where he kept the slingshot his sister had bequeathed to him after she had outgrown the petty hobby of slinging stones around. Perhaps he could hit them both in the head thereby knocking them out and run down to alert his parents and sister. He grabbed a pebble on the wooden platform, slipped it into the pouch of his slingshot, pulled back, aimed, and fired. With a zing the pebble shot through the air and nailed Spivey right in the back of the head. He quickly ducked down to hide in case one of the men looked his way.

"Ow!" Spivey screeched. "Something hit me!"

"Shut up Spivey! Zis place is cursed!" Jacques eyed the temple nervously. "We don't want to wake ze gods."

Zing! Another pebble came whizzing through the air and smacked into Spivey's backside. Spivey yelped again and jumped. Only this time Jacques had seen it and as he bent down to pick up the stone he scanned the temple. Someone else was in here with them.

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Evelyn had already stepped inside the chamber and set her torch in one of the empty brackets. Rick did the same while Elizabeth kept her torch, still searching the area around with her six senses.

As it was in her vision—only difference was they had been alive at the time—there were two soldiers standing on both sides of an ornate chest. The chest had a gold disc on top and Evelyn felt her heart rate speed up. Could it be?

"The Scorpion King," she breathed.

"Come again?" Elizabeth queried. Neither she nor her father had ever heard of such a person so they were both again wearing looks of confusion. When it came to Ancient Egypt, perplexity seemed to be the primary emotion felt by both Rick and Elizabeth.

Evelyn explained, "He's supposed to be a myth. No trace of him, no artifacts, no writings, nothing has been found on him."

"With good reason probably," Elizabeth muttered dryly.

The look in Evelyn's eyes made both father and daughter's initial worries and doubts multiply. With eagerness Evelyn said, "Let's open it."

"I've got a better idea," Elizabeth replied in her _you-have-seriously-got-to-be-joking_ voice. "How about we not?"

"Evy, I don't think it's such a good idea."

"Oh, come on! It's just a chest. No harm ever came from opening a chest."

Rick slapped himself on the forehead. "Yeah, like no harm ever came from reading a book, right? Remember how well that one went?" he reminded her.

Elizabeth's senses were now starting to scream at her to get out of there and drag her parents with her. She squeezed her torch and walked forward a few steps. "Mum, Dad, I really think we should get out of here."

Evelyn looked at her daughter like she was crazy. "We can't stop now, love!"

"Yes we can!" Elizabeth exclaimed, her voice growing high-pitched.

Rick contemplated on the repercussions that could come about from opening the chest. The odds of them unleashing another plague of evil and death upon the world a second time were slim to none. What could happen? So it was with great reluctance that he handed the crowbar over to his wife. "Just remember, I was the voice of reason here."

Evelyn rolled her eyes and muttered, "For once." But she smiled in delight nonetheless as she began working at the chest. Elizabeth started to pace nervously.

--------------------

Spivey and Jacques were still searching for Alex throughout the temple. His heart was pounding so hard he was afraid that one of them would be able to hear it. He wondered briefly if that other man had found his parents and sister and fervently hoped that they were okay. He knew his father would be able to overpower the man, but if he came upon them unawares...

The two men had their back to him now so he reached for another pebble. Except this time whatever luck he had had that allowed for him to remain undiscovered deserted him because Jacques caught the pebble in midair and reduced it to a fine powder. Spivey cursed and moved forward, but Jacques held him back.

"I'll take care of zis," he growled, gripping his scimitar.

Alex began to sweat profusely. He was in deep trouble now and there was no one here to help him.

--------------------

While Evelyn worked feverishly at trying to open the chest Elizabeth continued to voice her beliefs that they should leave immediately. Rick figured it was just being in such a small, closed off space underground that was distressing her so he let her rant.

"Mum! Dad! I have a _really_ bad feeling about all this! We need to leave now! And leave that thing here!" she cried.

"Darling, calm down," Evelyn soothed, not stopping her work.

"Why don't you go back up to the temple, honey?" Rick said.

Evelyn clenched her fists in frustration. Why wouldn't they listen to her? "Gah!" She threw her hands up into the air.

Truth be told, Elizabeth's strange behavior was beginning to unnerve Rick. She had never acted this way before that he could recall. What if she was right? But Evelyn would not relent no matter who protested. He glanced at the mummified soldier beside him and saw a gold chain with a golden key hanging around its neck. Despite his misgivings, he took the chain off the mummy's neck and said to his wife, "Hun, how about we do this your way."

Evelyn smiled gratefully and slid the key into the lock turning it easily. The top popped open to reveal much to Evelyn's astonishment and delight a golden bracelet with the figure of a scorpion encrusted on it.

"The Bracelet of Anubis," the woman uttered.

As her mother said those words Elizabeth felt an eerie wind of foreboding descend upon the tiny chamber in which they stood. She slowly approached the bracelet with her body tense and alert for battle as if she were circling a vampire she was about to slay. The bracelet lay nestled in the chest beckoning to her to touch it, to wear it, to revel in its power. The Slayer could sense the evil oozing off the artifact as it called to her. The power within it swirled around her and battled with her own mystical power which was rooted in a darkness that lived long before the bracelet was even dreamt of. That small darkness within her won out and the power of the Bracelet of Anubis seemed to withdraw, defeated. Elizabeth released a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding and realized she had just won an important battle. Although how or with what she wasn't sure about. One thing she was sure of was that thing was an instrument of evil and death and should never have been disturbed.

Unbeknownst to the O'Connells, Red Lasher stood poised at the entrance with his pistol cocked and aimed. He hadn't planned on one of their children being with them but it was no matter. He had killed children before and he could do it again. All that mattered to him was getting the bracelet that he was being paid to retrieve. When the woman uttered the words, "The Bracelet of Anubis", Red knew he had hit the jackpot. His job was immensely simplified. _I suppose I should thank you lot. How about I put you all out of your misery?_

He aimed his pistol at Rick O'Connell's back to get rid of the most dangerous one to him first. The wife and daughter would be easy to dispatch afterwards and then the bracelet was his for the taking. His current employers would be extremely pleased with him.

A sound from the chamber door temporarily suspended the Slayer's thoughts of the bracelet. She furrowed her brow as her senses returned to her after her mysterious inner war. Someone was at the chamber door and it wasn't Alex. Before she could turn to see, however, the walls and floors made an awful groaning sound of stone scraping against stone. She was nearly thrown off-balance as the floor began to shake. _Oh no! Please God no!_

Upon feeling the tremors Red suddenly seemed to value his life more than his paycheck so he shoved the pistol back in his belt and ran for it. He was confident that the O'Connells would get out of it because they were a slippery lot. They would have the bracelet and Red could get it from them in the safer walls of their home in London. Yes, that was a good plan.

As if it would automatically appease whatever force she had angered Evelyn instantly slammed the chest shut.

"Bit late for that, isn't it?" Rick said.

Evelyn picked up the chest. "Put it in your rucksack!" she cried frantically.

"Oh no! No! No! Leave the bloody thing here!" Elizabeth yelled.

"It's a bit late for that!" her mother retorted.

"What does it say?" Rick asked, thrusting the chest towards his wife.

"Uh." Evelyn read the inscription, "'He who disturbs this chest shall drink from the Nile.' Oh, that doesn't sound too bad."

Immediately the sound of massive amounts of rushing water where there should be none in the middle of the desert filled their ears. Shoving the chest into his rucksack Rick grabbed onto his wife and daughter and they ran for their lives.

--------------------

Alex stood and backed up even knowing he was inevitably doomed. There was nowhere for him to run, nowhere for him to hide and the burly Frenchman was getting closer. Jacques was climbing up the ladder of the scaffolding while Spivey stood on the ground watching with gleeful excitement.

"Jacques's gonna make a nice filet out of you, my son!" the tall gangly one crooned eagerly.

Alex swallowed hard and kept the scream of horror he wanted to emit inside while holding on to the sides of the scaffolding. The Frenchman was nearly to the top of the scaffolding with his scimitar held between his teeth. What was he going to do now?

They were all startled when Red came running into the chamber screaming at his companions to get out of there.

"Run! Get the hell out of here!"

"What about the bracelet?" Spivey asked in confusion.

"Never mind that! Get out!" Red yelled.

Jacques glowered at Alex as if it was all the boy's fault and slid down the ladder. He didn't, however, leave the boy in peace. Before dashing out of the room after his partners he kicked a balance board out from under the scaffolding.

"Au revoir!" the Frenchman sneered.

The scaffolding began to rock back and forth as Alex desperately held on. When the planks beneath him gave way he jumped onto a pillar and hung on while the scaffolding crumpled to the floor. After realizing he was unhurt the boy slid to the floor in amazement. His heart was still pounding at that near-fatal experience and his body was shaking, but he was okay.

Yet all the movement proved to be too much for the pillar that had allowed for Alex to escape the crumbling scaffolding. It lurched to the side and smashed into another pillar thus creating a domino effect. Alex watched in open-mouthed horror as pillar after pillar crashed into one another, destroying the temple.

"Ooops," he said.

--------------------

A gigantic wave of water from nowhere pounded after the three O'Connells in the catacombs. Ahead, another geyser appeared in front of them and they were forced to turn and sprint down a side tunnel. The only problem was this tunnel was a dead end. They were trapped.

"Okay, next time one of you choose," Rick told his wife and daughter.

Elizabeth was terrified and enraged at the same time. What a perfect way for a slayer to die! Being drowned in the bowels of an ancient Egyptian temple in the middle of the damn desert. The Watchers Council ought to have a laugh over the twisted irony of that one if they ever found out. _No! I refuse to die here. There has to be a way out! There always is!_ She started to speed down where they had come with her parents yelling after her to stop. _Maybe the water's drained out—nope! _She was slammed against her parents from a gush of water and they were crushed to the wall. Elizabeth was swept under immediately, but Rick managed to pull her up and keep her above water. It wasn't as if that would do any good since the tunnel was quickly filling with water.

"This is bad!" Rick sputtered.

Evelyn gasped for air and struggled to stay above the water. Both she and her husband were gripping onto their daughter's arms and pushing her up. "We've had bad before!"

"This is worse!"

He looked up and saw that there was an opening in the ceiling, but it was blocked by metal bars. He used those to keep above the water and guided his wife and daughter to them. Except Elizabeth wasn't there!

"Lizzie!" Rick cried out.

Elizabeth meanwhile had dove under the water deciding that with her slayer stamina she could hold her breath for quite a while and perhaps find an escape route. Except it was impossible to see in the murky water so she surfaced and swam to her parents.

"There's no way out! I can't see!" she gasped.

She saw the bars her father was trying to bend and decided to give him a hand. Hopefully her parents were too terrified at the moment to actually believe what they were seeing, but she had no choice. It was life or death.

--------------------

With a grimace Alex watched the last few pillars smash into one another. The last column to fall held for a moment before tipping into the stone wall and smashing into it creating a hole.

The last thing Alex had ever expected to happen happened, water came gushing out of that hole and along with it came three bodies. They were carried right to Alex's feet and the small boy breathed a sigh of relief when he saw who they were and that they were alive. His parents and older sister gasped for air for a while before fully realizing that they weren't trapped anymore. They looked at their surroundings in astonishment and Alex winced.

"Mum, Dad, Lizzie...I can explain."


	3. Welcome Home Party

**Chapter Three Title: **Welcome Home Party

Three reviewers, that's a bit better. Thanks a bunch to **Shann51**,** anais**, and **immortalwizardpirateelf-fan**. To **anais, **you make a very good point. But I realized the complete opposite (I sort of put myself in their position). The reason Elizabeth hasn't yet told her parents about her being a slayer is _because_ of all they've seen that would cause more problems and paranoia than not. I see Rick as the overprotective kind of father of his little girl, you know? Besides, it's more interesting to have them find out in the story.

--------------------

Elizabeth never thought she would be so happy to lay eyes on the stormy city of London. A violent thunderstorm was in effect, which was nothing out of the ordinary for London. After another near-death experience to add in her diary she was ready to get back to open cemeteries and good old-fashioned vampires and demons. She promised Roland, her watcher, that she would notify him as soon as possible of her return so they could resume their routines of training and patrolling. She also would have to relate to him of the recent events including her mother receiving visions and the strange dreams Elizabeth herself had been experiencing during the trip back.

Her dreams were, as usual, cryptic and scattered, but one image stayed in her mind after waking and long after. She kept seeing a twisted, deformed skeletal creature frozen in the middle of seemingly painful spasms molded into rock. It was positively gruesome and Elizabeth despised looking upon it, but it kept surfacing in her dreams. What was the deal with that?

She let her brother take up the privilege of carrying the bracelet in because as far as this slayer was concerned, she wanted nothing further to do with it. She had tried convincing her parents to leave the blasted thing in Egypt, but again they would not listen...rather her mother wouldn't, her father she thought was more on her side.

As soon as she entered the foyer she saw her mother head to the library with her father trailing after. The library in the O'Connell manor was enormous; two stories tall, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves filled to the brim with dozens of books—the majority of which centered on Ancient Egypt—and the room was decorated with several ancient artifacts. She knew why her mother was going there.

"Honestly Mum, you should have been a watcher. They would have loved you," Elizabeth muttered following her parents.

She came upon her mother pawing through books and notes saying to her father, "According to research, that bracelet is some sort of guide. It leads to the Lost Oasis of Ahm Shere."

_Oh please don't tell me she's thinking of going there, whatever the hell that place is_. If her mother decided that they must go there then Elizabeth was obligated to go along to protect her family. Her father seemed to be thinking along the same lines as her.

"Evy, I know what you're thinking, and the answer is no. We just got home."

Her mother used that remark to her advantage. Clever woman. "That's the beauty of it! We're already packed!"

"You have _got_ to be joking! Mum, we nearly drowned in Egypt. Can't you take a hint? I don't want to go traipsing off to some bleedin oasis especially if that damned bracelet is the one that leads to it!" Elizabeth exclaimed.

Evelyn didn't seem to see past the fact that her well brought up daughter had used a curse word. The girl had obviously spent far too much time around her father and uncle. "Elizabeth Nefertiri O'Connell! I don't ever want to hear you use such language again! You must set an example for your brother!" She glared accusingly at her husband. "This is all your doing."

"What?!" Rick said defensively.

Elizabeth had the grace to look contrite before saying, "I'm sorry Mother, but I believe there are more important things to worry about at the moment. Namely that fancy Bracelet of Anubis that you're so fond of, _which, _I remind you, nearly got us all killed."

"Evy, she does have a point. Give me one good reason," Rick said tiredly.

Evelyn sidled up to her husband with a seductive air about her. "It's just an oasis. A beautiful, romantic oasis."

Elizabeth groaned in disgust and walked upstairs to the second story. If this was how her mother was going to convince her father to go then Elizabeth might as well begin writing her last will and testament now. Her parents continued their little foreplay activity downstairs.

"Oh, you mean the kind with pine trees, a cozy beach, and cool water?" Rick said softly.

Evelyn nodded and nuzzled his neck.

As much as he enjoyed the nuzzling he knew he had to ask the next question. "All right, what's the catch?"

Evelyn replied sheepishly, "Supposedly it's the resting place of the Army of Anubis."

A sardonic snort from upstairs could be heard where Elizabeth was looking through some books.

Rick groaned. "See, I knew there'd be a catch. There's always a catch. And I bet this army is commanded by this Scorpion King guy."

"He awakens once every six thousand years," Evelyn confirmed as the two ascended the stairs.

"And I'll wager if someone doesn't kill him, he'll wipe out the world," Elizabeth drawled.

Evelyn looked at her daughter in surprise. "How did you know?"

"Lucky guess."

Now this was bizarre. Her job and her personal life were being combined. Usually end-of-the-world discussions were had at her watcher's flat. She never thought she would be seriously broaching the subject with her family, but then stranger things have occurred. Although usually the conversations with Roland didn't include looking for an apocalypse to start.

"In 1150 B.C., Ramses IV sent the last known expedition to actually reach the oasis. He sent more than a thousand men," Evelyn informed them.

"And none of them were ever seen again," Rick replied in an ironic tone.

"How did you know? Did you suddenly start reading my books?"

"I didn't know, but that's always how the story goes."

Evelyn seemed to be contemplating for a moment before saying, "Did I mention there was a gold pyramid?"

"Really?" Elizabeth asked, shamefully becoming intrigued.

"Alexander the Great sent troops to search for it."

"Stupid ponce," Elizabeth whispered to herself.

"So did Caesar," Evelyn continued.

"What a guy," Rick replied dryly, still unconvinced.

"And Napoleon!"

Rick sighed. She really wasn't going to let this go. "Yeah, but we're smarter than him." He paused and then added, "Taller too."

"Exactly! And that's why we're going to find it!" Evelyn insisted confidently.

Even though she disagreed with her mother Elizabeth had to deeply admire that fiery determination and confidence.

"Because we're taller?" Rick was a little confused.

Evelyn smiled indulgently and jumped from the ladder of the bookshelf into her husband's arms. "That's why I love you."

Below, Alex came into the library lugging the chest in with him. When Elizabeth saw her brother carrying the heavy object she winced. She could have at least carried it in. After all, the kid was only eight.

"Mum! What do I do with this chest? Sucker weighs a god-dang ton!"

"Alex! Watch your language!" Evelyn scolded.

Elizabeth cracked up when Alex tilted his nose into the air and mimicked the perfect imitation of upper-class English, "Rather weighty, this."

Alex set the cumbersome chest onto a small table. He heard a small clicking sound emanate from within and, in the manner of all curious eight-year-olds, bent down to listen closer. He couldn't hear anything now, but he had heard something. He was sure of it. Pulling the key from his pocket he began to open the chest.

The debate continued upstairs. Rick walked to a bookshelf and pulled down a book. Then he did something that stunned his wife and daughter—he opened the book and began to read it.

"Dear God, Mum. Dad's reading a book. I never thought I'd see the day," Elizabeth teased.

"Yeah, yeah. Shut up," Rick retorted, still flipping through the pages. "Evy, your first weird dream was six weeks ago, right?"

Evelyn gave him a cursory nod as an answer.

Rick showed her and Elizabeth the page he was reading. "That just happens to coincide with the Egyptian New Year....the Year of the Scorpion."

This was definitely news to the two ladies in front of him. A sick feeling of dread began to form in Elizabeth's stomach. It was morbidly funny how accustomed to that feeling she was becoming.

Evelyn gulped and murmured, "Coincidence."__

Rick sighed. "Maybe, all I'm saying is let's just be cautious.

Meanwhile, the youngest O'Connell was peering into the now open chest and looking upon the golden Bracelet of Anubis. Why was the bracelet open? That was definitely strange. Like his sister had days ago, he felt the power of the bracelet beckon to him. He felt its call to touch it and wear it and he knew he _had _to obey. He couldn't explain what he felt had he attempted. Unlike his sister, however, he had not the aid of the power of the Slayer to keep him from temptation. He glanced upstairs and assured himself no one was paying him any mind. His parents and sister were too caught up in a debate. Rolling up his sleeve he carefully placed the bracelet on his wrist. It automatically snapped shut and caught the boy by surprise. Alex stumbled backwards in astonishment.

"If anything ever happened to one of you, I would never forgive myself. You two and Alex are the only things that matter to me," Rick said softly, pulling his wife and daughter in close.

Elizabeth, seeing the direction that this had the potential in going, let her father hug her for a while before pulling away. There was no way she was being squished in between those shag bunnies. Perhaps she should check on Ebony and make sure her Uncle Jonathan was feeding her. In fact, she had better make sure Jonathan hadn't brought in any of his girlfriends and used her room for his..."extra curricular activities." It had happened before and she had warned him.

Evelyn snuggled up close to Rick and joked, "Well, the Bembridge scholars have been _begging_ me to run the British Museum."

Her giggles were quieted when her husband kissed her lovingly.

Alex was beginning to grow frantic now and was about to call out for help when the library disappeared and he was on a great desert plain. Standing before him were three enormous pyramids and a colossal Sphinx. He recognized this place; he'd visited it with his family. This was the Giza Plateau. Except these giant structures looked brand new instead of weathered and chipped.

The boy was suddenly flying over the Nile River and then across the desert seeing it all from a bird's eye view. He kept on flying until he reached another location his family had visited, the Temple of Amen at Karnak.

The visions ended after that and Alex was staring at the bracelet in a new light. He wanted this thing off. Now. He searched for a clasp, but there was none. The links were practically fused shut; sealed onto his wrist forever.

After breaking off the kiss Evelyn smiled in contentment then sighed. "I hate it when you do that."

"Do what?" Rick asked mischievously.

"It makes me feel like agreeing to anything."

"Excellent," Rick replied and he tipped Evelyn as if they were doing the tango and was about to kiss her again before noticing the skimpy under-clothing hanging on a shelf.

"Those knickers are not mine," Evelyn said in confusion.

Rick's sky blue eyes narrowed and he growled, "Jonathan."

He released his wife and went to find his troublesome brother-in-law. Without looking downstairs he yelled, "Hey Alex, behave yourself for a couple of minutes, okay?"

Alex slammed the chest shut and stood in front with a look of perfect innocence. "Uh, you betcha!"

He picked up the chest and gasped when he realized how light it was. Thinking quickly he grabbed a small statue nearby and dropped it inside before slamming the lid shut again. Hopefully he could get this bracelet off soon and no one would have to know he had put it on in the first place.

His mother walked downstairs and ruffled his hair affectionately. "Happy to be home?"

Forcing himself to smile he said, "Couldn't be happier!"

--------------------

She was the perfect girl. She was beautiful, charming, had an impressive chest size, a dancer, and best of all: a complete flake. Jonathan Carnahan walked down the hallways of his sister's house with one arm around her and the other grasping a gold scepter. Part of how he had charmed the dancer was to exaggerate on his past escapades. This one being the time he and his sister and his sister's husband, Rick O'Connell, had fought the resurrected mummy, Imhotep, at Hamunaptra over fifteen years ago.

"Then I killed the mummy and all his minions and stole his scepter!"

The blonde dancer giggled. "You're so brave," she cooed.

The pair skidded to a stop at a bedroom door—his niece's bedroom of all bedrooms; she was going to kill him if he went in there—when men wearing red turbans blocked his way. That was odd. There weren't any red turbaned men the last time he was here.

"So sorry, we must be in the wrong house," he said, backing away.

"I thought you said this was your house!" the dancer pouted in confusion.

"No I didn't," he said as the men grabbed him and pulled him away from the dancer.

"Call me!" she cried out.

The men dragged him into his niece's room and slammed the door. They forced Jonathan into a chair and surrounded him with cruel expressions on their faces. Suddenly Jonathan wasn't caring about what his niece might do if she caught him in her room again.

A heavy-set old man walked towards Jonathan. He was the Curator from the British Museum although Jonathan would never have remembered such a fact.

Jonathan could think of many reasons why armed men might show up at his door, the problem was he couldn't figure which one was the this case. He didn't think that chap in front of him fit into any of the reasons.

"You're not Shelia's husband, are you?"

"No."

"Uh, if you work for Johnny, I was going to pay him back on Tuesday," Jonathan tried.

"I do not know this Johnny," the Curator replied evenly.

_Damn._ Jonathan could not for the life of him place this man or figure out why he was here.

"We're looking for the Bracelet of Anubis."

So they were looking for a bracelet. What the hell did they want him for then? "Oh! Good for you! Good thing to have, the old Bracelet of Anubis!"

"Where is it?" the Curator asked, his voice impatient.

Jonathan frowned. "You're looking _here_ for the bracelet? Ah, well, you see, I actually have no idea what you're talking about."

The Curator sighed impatiently. Not a good sign. "Mr. O'Connell you try my patience."

Jonathan's hazel eyes widened. "Mr. O'Connell? Wait a minute! Hold on! Now you've got the wrong man—"

Jonathan's pleas were cut off by the knife one of the red turbaned men stuck under his throat. Jonathan chose that it was best for his health if he lied to these men. "Oh, _that_ bracelet! Yes, now I remember. I...ah...lost it in a card game."

The Curator leaned in so close he was almost breathing down his neck. "For your sake, I hope not." His eyes traveled to the gold scepter Jonathan held in his hand and they widened considerably. He grabbed it and said in disbelief. "It cannot be."

At this moment another person stepped into view. She was dressed in a black gown that was coated with jewels and she held a wooden box in one hand. She caressed Jonathan's cheek seductively causing the man to shiver.

"Well, hello," Jonathan breathed.

"Where is your wife?" the woman, Meela was her name, asked.

"My wife? Oh you mean Evy! Uh, I think she went to Baden-Baden or Tibet or something. The girl's a free spirit. Did I mention that I'm single now?" Jonathan answered, putting on some of his trademark charm that had served to subsequently get him into and out of trouble on occasion.

Setting the box down on a nearby table Meela opened it and pulled out an asp. Jonathan made a whimpering sound. He didn't know what would kill him first: the snake, those men, or his niece if she ever found him in her room with these people.

Meela kissed the top of the asp's head and smiled at Jonathan. "Egyptian asps are quite poisonous."

Jonathan began to squirm underneath the hold of the two men keeping him in the chair. "All right I'll tell you! It's in a safe downstairs! The combination is, uh, three, twenty, fifty-eight..." he trailed off as Meela put the snake to his throat. "Hey, wait! I told you where it is!"

"And your point is?" Meela said.

"My point is that I told you so you wouldn't kill me!" Jonathan cried.

Meela laughed. "When did we make _that_ arrangement?"

As the snake's fangs got closer to Jonathan's throat everyone's attention was suddenly drawn to the person who had slipped into the room and cleared her throat with a loud, "Ahem!"

--------------------

Evelyn showed the book her husband had recently looked through to her son. "Look at that, it's the Year of the Scorpion."

"Cool," Alex said.

"Thought you might like that."

She walked over to the chest and asked Alex for the key. Knowing that it was not the Bracelet of Anubis that lay in the chest, but instead one of their statues he was reluctant to hand it over. So he replied that he didn't have it.

"What do you mean, you don't have it? Where is it?" Evelyn demanded.

Alex shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe Elizabeth has it."

"Alex, it you've lost that key then you're in big trouble!" Evelyn said sternly.

"I haven't lost it! I just can't find it!" Alex insisted, then he added, "There's a difference."

Evelyn almost smiled at her son's cute impertinence. "Well, you better start finding it."

"I will, Mum!"

Bigger problems than the lost key to the chest walked into the library at that moment. A group of heavily armed, red turbaned men led by a big, dark-skinned man named Lock-Nah faced Evelyn and Alex.

"The chest, give it to me now!" Lock-Nah, the dark-skinned leader, demanded.

--------------------

Standing in the doorway, looking extremely incensed, was a teenaged girl with dark brown hair dressed in slightly damp travel clothes. Jonathan never thought he would have been so happy that his niece caught him in her room without her permission.

Elizabeth had no idea just what sort of kinky sex game her uncle was playing and she did not really want to find out. All she wanted was for him to get out and stay out of her bloody room! Was that too much to ask? Why did he always seem to bring these things to _her_ private quarters? Granted the only part of this equation that seemed to fit was the woman in the slinky black dress. The snake she was holding and the armed, red-turbaned men did not fit at all. Perhaps this wasn't a sex game after all. Or it was just a really weird one.

"Uncle Jonathan," her voice was tightly controlled, "remember what we talked about? Keep your...games...out of my room. Honestly, what is so bloody fascinating about _my_ quarters? We have plenty of guest rooms, in case you failed to notice that with your liquor-addled mine. I don't know what particular game this is supposed to be nor do I care to find out. Just take it to another room, preferably one far away from my own."

"Honey, what's going on—whoa Jonathan! What are you doing?" Rick asked, joining his daughter in the doorway.

"Jonathan brought his mates into my room!" Elizabeth declared indignantly and then added, "Again!"

"No, Lizzie this isn't what it looks like!" Jonathan defended himself. "They dragged me in here! I don't know them at all!"

Taking a deep breath Rick strode into Elizabeth's room and said, "Okay, knowing my brother-in-law he probably deserves whatever you're about to do to him."

"Thank you very much!" Jonathan sputtered indignantly.

Elizabeth snorted in agreement. She loved her uncle, but he was too much sometimes.

Rick continued, "But, this is my house and this is my daughter's room. We have certain rules about snakes and dismemberment. So, how about we take this somewhere else?"

In response the woman in the slinky dress threw the asp right at Rick who promptly snatched it out of the air and saucily replied, "Nice asp," as he held it behind its head. One of the men drew his pistol and aimed it at Rick. Rick flung the snake at him which tangled around the man's neck and bit him in the face. The man fell to the floor convulsing in agony.

"Hey! There will be no bloody snake throwing in my room! Get out!" Elizabeth demanded, beyond pissed off.

The man holding the knife to Jonathan's neck started towards Rick and Elizabeth. Jonathan, taking advantage of his temporary freedom, took the scepter back from the Curator and flung himself backwards to topple the chair.

Rick was rendered somehow immobile when a red turbaned man hurled a knife at his daughter. Time seemed to slow down as he watched what he thought would be the death of his firstborn child. But she completely surprised him by bringing both her hands up the moment the sharp point of the knife was within centimeters of her face and trapped the hilt between her palms. When had he ever taught her that?

Elizabeth calmly took the knife in one hand and threw an irate glare at the man who threw it. Her dark blue eyes darkened with annoyance and ire. "Oh, that is going to cost you."

She hurled the knife back at him. Instead of aiming to kill, she aimed for the man's groin, a part of himself that would definitely cause him quite a bit of pain. Her aim was true and the all the men in the room including her father and uncle cringed as the man doubled over and fell to the floor rocking back in forth in a fetal position while moaning piteously.

--------------------

Evelyn glared at the men who dared barge into _her_ home and order her about. The nerve of them.

"Who are you? What are you doing in my house?"

"Give me the chest!" Lock-Nah reiterated, his small amount of patience beginning to waver.

She ran to the wall and yanked a Roman sword out of its stand and walked back to stand in front of Alex protectively. She eyed the men with no trace of fear, only anger and determination.

"Get out of my house," she ordered coolly.

"Whoa, Mum, maybe that's not the best idea," Alex cautioned nervously.

"Give me the chest now and I will spare you and your son," Lock-Nah replied, grinning evilly as each of his men withdrew a huge scimitar.

Alex, who was holding onto the chest, gulped in fear. "_Definitely_ not the best idea. I think we should yell for Dad now."

"Alex, get back there!" Evelyn ordered.

Lock-Nah was through being polite, or as polite as a man in his profession and of his temperament could be. "Now I will kill you and take it anyway."

"I think not."

The group in the library was joined by another man, this one dressed in all black with a black cape. His face was handsome, tanned, and tattooed.

The red turbaned men gasped. "Medjai!"

Medjai were desert warriors who were staunchly dedicated to protecting mummies' tombs to ensure that no one unleashed the evil powers trapped within. This particular man Evelyn recognized. Ardeth Bay, leader of the Medjai, had first tried to kill them in prevention of awakening the mummy, Imhotep. He later fought and nearly died with them. This was the first time she had seen him in nearly sixteen years.

"Ardeth, what are you doing here?"

Not taking his eyes off the red turbaned warriors he replied, "Perhaps explanations are best kept for later."

Evelyn saw the logic in that and didn't argue the desert warrior's words.

Lock-Nah seemed crossed between anger, amusement, and anticipation. "Ardeth Bay."

Ardeth nodded his head and said, "Lock-Nah."

With the gratuitous introductions out of the way, Lock-Nah and his men attacked.

--------------------

Jonathan crawled over the moaning man Elizabeth had impaled in the groin trying to find an escape, but the Curator grabbed him by the foot.

"Give me that!" the man cried, trying to grab the scepter.

Jonathan appropriately responded by bringing the scepter down crashing on the Curator's head. He resumed crawling towards his niece's private bathroom figuring he would be safer in there.

Two of the red turbaned men charged at Rick and Elizabeth. Rick moved to defend his daughter, but she was a tad bit ahead of him on the defensive. She did a graceful pirouette lashing out a foot to give the charging man a good solid kick in the abdomen causing the man to go flying backwards and smashing against her wall. He slumped to the floor, unconscious. Rick was stunned speechless at that feat along with everyone else in the room. He had taught his daughter how to fight and shoot, but he didn't recall ever teaching her those moves. And he knew a fifteen-year-old girl wasn't supposed to be strong enough to kick a man across a room. He didn't even know if he would be able to pull something like that off. He made short work of the other man charging at him by stabbing him with his own scimitar only to be besieged by another.

"You wankers are messing up my room! Now you've made me angry!" Elizabeth cried, punching another man in the face. She didn't kill them although she would be perfectly within her rights to do so since it would be in self-defense. Slayers were forbidden to kill human beings and she was slightly afraid of what the consequences would be if she ever did slay a human. However, if it were necessary to end the life of a human in order to protect her family then so be it.

Rick watched in between his fights in amazement as his daughter dispatched everyone of her attackers with a skill, grace, and speed that was almost inhuman. Those fools that came for her had no chance whatsoever. He remembered her protests to bringing the bracelet home and even opening the chest in the catacombs of the temple. Was that somehow all connected? When he saw the woman nod, he instinctively ducked and yelled to Elizabeth to do the same right as a man entered the room firing a machine gun.

_Oh God. My room! They're completely wrecking my room! And where is my cat!? _Elizabeth cried silently as she rolled to the side to end up beside her father. The bullets ripped across Elizabeth's bedroom tearing into her wardrobe, the radiator, her bed, and her wall. Steam rose up from the damaged radiator and Elizabeth prayed it wouldn't blow. She and Rick dove into her private bathroom and Rick slammed the door shut.

--------------------

Ardeth Bay leapt forward to confront Lock-Nah while kicking other men away. Evelyn's body seemed to know what to do without her even guiding it as the men with scimitars assailed her. She did a cartwheel backwards as one man came at her, artfully kicking him in the face. Then she crossed swords with an attacker much to the surprise of herself and her son who was standing by the bookshelf holding onto the chest.

After she sliced the beard off one's chin Alex piped up, "Whoa Mum! When did you learn to do that?"

Evelyn continued, wide-eyed, to parry and feint with her blade at the two red-turbaned men attacking her. After she dispatched one she replied, "I have no idea!"

As soon as she had composed herself another attacker came barreling into her and slammed her against a wall. Alex cried out in horror, "Mum!" as Evelyn gasped for the breath that had been so rudely knocked out of her lungs.

The man grinned a rotted grin at the lady of the house and she smoldered. She drove her knee into his groin causing him to double over and taking advantage of his new position, Evelyn kneed him in the face. She knocked him unconscious with a right punch and he toppled to the floor.

To Alex she said, "_That_ I learned from your father!"

Alex smiled in admiration at his mother, but it quickly changed to a cry as a large man tried to snatch the chest away from him. Since Alex was only eight and the man was considerably larger and stronger than him the boy lost his hold on the chest. Before the man could run off, however, Ardeth Bay stabbed the man in the heart from behind and the chest plopped to the ground. Lock-Nah attacked Ardeth Bay again and the Medjai warrior had no time to retrieve the chest.

Blocking Lock-Nah's attacks, Ardeth yelled to Evelyn, "What's in the chest?"

Blocking her own opponent's attacks and knocking the man into a glass case she shouted, "The Bracelet of Anubis!"

Ardeth gasped in surprise and cried, "You must get to the chest! Get it now!"

"But—"

"Hurry! They must not get the bracelet!"

Evelyn cursed and dropped her sword to run over to the chest. She heaved it up at the same moment a man came at her. It all happened so fast that Evelyn didn't have time to react before the man had scooped her and the chest up and carried them out of the room with the woman kicking and screaming.

"Evelyn!" Ardeth roared in anger.

"Mum!" Alex cried, horrified.

Lock-Nah slashed Ardeth in the chest and pushed him backwards before the desert warrior could go after the woman. The dark-skinned man saw Alex cowering in a corner and flung his knife at him, which lodged into the wall right over top the boy's head. Then he swept from the room with his surviving servants.

--------------------

Trapped within his daughter's bathroom Rick looked frantically for an escape. It would not be very long before those people got in here. And he really didn't want to be around when that occurred.

"Where's Jonathan?" Elizabeth asked, breathless.

"Jonathan!" Rick yelled.

A form came dripping out of the bathtub, which was filled with bubbles. Elizabeth pulled him out and glared at him in fury. "What did you do now, Uncle Jon? Did you hear what they did to my room!?"

"Me?! I haven't done anything to anybody!" the man insisted.

Bullets tore through the top half of the bathroom door and everyone dodged out of its way. A bullet grazed Elizabeth's shoulder and she gasped in pain, but quickly pushed it down deep inside herself like her watcher taught her to do. It wasn't the worst wound she had suffered anyway and slayers had the largest pain thresholds of any mortal on earth.

Jonathan added meekly, "Lately."

Rick grabbed his daughter and brother-in-law and they busted through Elizabeth's bathroom window. It was not a way Elizabeth usually snuck in and out of her quarters, but it would do. With glass shattered all around them the three fell heavily to the ground. With her slayer stamina, Elizabeth wasn't fazed by the fall and stayed on her feet, her legs absorbing the impact easily. Her father and uncle nearly blacked out on the ground and Elizabeth hurriedly helped pull them upright. She and Rick dragged Jonathan across the lawn as a man appeared at her window and began shooting at them. When they reached a corner they huddled against the wall until the gunfire stopped. The two men and the girl released breaths of relief.

_Well, with all this excitement I hardly needed to go patrolling,_ Elizabeth thought sardonically.

Rick looked his daughter and hugged her close. "Are you all right, honey?" He saw blood on her shoulder and paled. "You've been hit! Why didn't you tell me?" He grasped the wound.

"Dad, it's only a scratch. The bullet grazed my shoulder. I'll live. And I was too busy trying not to be hit fatally when it happened," Elizabeth replied, unperturbed.

After Rick looked at the "scratch" he was assured that it was not serious, albeit a little deeper than he would have liked. It was just seeing a fair amount of blood on his child after being assailed by gunfire was very scary. But the bleeding had already slowed to a light trickle and he could have sworn it was already beginning to close. It didn't seem to bother Elizabeth too much just like that jump from her bathroom window didn't seem to bother her as much as it did him and Jonathan. Rick was still feeling that fall.

"We should check on Mum and Alex," Elizabeth said quietly, looking over the corner. Not feeling the presence of anyone other than the two men with her and not seeing anyone she said, "It's clear."

Although he didn't know why he trusted his daughter's judgment because he was inarguably the more experienced in these situations, he sprinted across the lawn to find his wife and son and make sure they were okay. Elizabeth was running right beside him with Jonathan loping behind. A limousine pulled out of their driveway and Elizabeth and Rick watched it leave. The curtains on the rear window spread apart and familiar face appeared, screaming for help. It was Evelyn.

Simultaneously Rick cried out, "Evelyn!" while Elizabeth yelled, "Mum!"

They ran after the car, but it was already too far gone and they needed to check on Alex if he was still there. The problem of the missing eight-year-old was solved when a frantic voice cried out, "Dad! Lizzie!"

Elizabeth released a breath of relief as the boy jumped into his father's arms. Rick hugged his son tightly.

"Alex, are you all right?" Elizabeth asked.

The boy nodded and gasped when he saw his sister was bleeding. "Lizzie! You're bleeding!"

"I'm fine, it's only a scratch," she assured him.

Rick saw the man behind them and flatly said, "Ardeth Bay, long time no see." He grabbed the man and said angrily, "What the hell are you doing here?"

Before Ardeth could answer Rick said, "No! Scratch that! I don't care. Who the hell were those guys and where did they take my wife?"

Elizabeth held Alex close, assuring herself that he was unharmed. Alex, having been thoroughly terrified and slightly traumatized by everything that was happening clung to his elder sister tightly trying his very best not to let tears of fright and despair flow.

Elizabeth stared at the tanned, desert warrior talking with her father in acute fascination. _So this is the famed leader of the Medjai. He's rather fetching._ Not only had her parents talked about him she had also read about Medjai warriors in the books her watcher had. It truly was an honor to finally meet one.

Ardeth Bay pulled a photo out of his robes and calmly showed it to Rick. It was a picture he had taken while posing as a workman at the dig site in Hamunaptra. It showed the Curator among other nameless faces.

"My friend, wherever this man is, your wife will surely be."

"That's the man that was in my room," Elizabeth noted.

Alex looked at the picture and recognition clicked in his mind. He snatched the photo and said, "I know him! He's one of the Curators at the British Museum!"

"Are you sure?" Ardeth Bay asked.

Rick nodded. "Yeah, you better believe him. He spends more time there then he does at home."

Instantly they were on the move walking quickly to the garage. Stomping across the driveway Rick said, "Okay, you're here, bad guys are here, Evy gets kidnapped. Let me guess—"

Ardeth Bay grimly confirmed Rick's suspicions. "Yes, they have removed the creature from his grave."

With a groan Jonathan said, "Not to point fingers, but isn't it your job to make sure that doesn't happen?"

Ardeth replied shortly, "The woman who is with them knows things. She knows things that no living person could possibly know. She knew exactly where the creature was buried."

"Ah, the harlot in the black dress," Elizabeth remarked, reminiscing to ten minutes ago. "I really hate her."

As they climbed into Rick's 1933 Beauford beauty the Medjai contiuned, "We were hoping she would lead us to the bracelet. She did and now they have it."

Before getting in Alex sheepishly confessed, "I wouldn't get too nervous about that."

Pulling up his sleeve he revealed that he was wearing the bracelet. Elizabeth gasped and moaned at the same time of her foolishness in letting her brother handle the chest. Ardeth Bay examined his wrist fervently.

"When I put it on, I saw the pyramids at Giza, then _whoosh! _Straight across the desert to Karnak," Alex informed them.

Elizabeth was starting to feel sick. What had she done? Ardeth Bay then explained exactly what she had done.

"By putting this on, you have started a chain reaction that could bring about the Apocalypse."

_Dammit!_

Rick clenched his fists. "You," he said to Ardeth, "lighten up. You," to Alex, "big trouble. You," to Jonathan, "get in. You," to Elizabeth, "big explaining to do."

Elizabeth grimaced. She should have known exposing her fighting skills like that was going to have consequences. Yet that seemed so small in comparison to her lack of insight into what she had exposed her brother to. She had left him alone with the bracelet, let him carry it inside, knowing what that thing was. She knew it was evil. She knew putting it on wouldn't have a positive outcome (although she never expected an apocalypse was one of those outcomes), yet she selfishly stayed away from it. Alex was only eight, he didn't have the inner strength of the Slayer that she did.

--------------------

Rick's car careened down the sodden London streets amidst the rain and flashes of lightning. The atmosphere in the car was tense, distraught, and fearful. Each person in the car was temporarily entrenched within his or her own entourage of troubling thoughts and emotions. Ardeth broke the eerie silence.

"I'm sorry if I alarmed your son. But you must understand, now that the bracelet is on his wrist, we have only seven days before the Scorpion King awakes."

Turning a corner Rick replied in disbelief, "_We_?What _we_? I just want my wife back."

Elizabeth wished she could go just do that as well, but her sacred duty to mankind would not allow it. She would be obligated to eradicate this Scorpion King chap whether her father wanted it or not. Besides, she felt more than partly responsible for the impending apocalypse.

"If the Scorpion King is not destroyed, he will raise the Army of Anubis."

_Dammit!_

Jonathan leaned forward. "I take it that's not a good thing?"

"Oh, no. He'll just wipe out the world," Elizabeth replied casually.

"Ah. The old wipe-out-the-world ploy."

Ardeth Bay rambled on, "Whoever kills the Scorpion King can send his army back to the underworld." _Oh, well that's not too bad._ "Or use it to destroy mankind and rule the earth." _That is bad._

"So _that's_ why the dug up ol' Imhotep. He's the only one tough enough to take on the Scorpion King."

The Medjai agreed. "That is their plan."

"Bloody hell," Elizabeth muttered, shaking her head. She just wanted to sleep for a while.

They reached the British Museum in record time Rick having flown across the slippery London streets. The rain continued to pelt down. The atmosphere it created was just perfect for the circumstances. Rick turned around in his seat and addressed his children.

"Okay, you two, I want you to stay here and protect the car."

Jonathan seemed to like that idea for himself. "I could do that!"

Alex glared. "Protect the car? Come on, Dad, just because I'm a kid doesn't mean I'm stupid."

Rick ruffled his hair. "I know you're not." He turned his gaze on his elder child, who was sporting a very familiar and unsettling gleam in her eyes. "Lizzie, watch out for your brother. I'm coming back with your mother."

"If you see someone come out running and screaming, it's probably me." Jonathan gulped.

Rick seemed to rethink something. "Jonathan, maybe you should stay here with Alex and Elizabeth."

"Now you're thinking!" Jonathan agreed heartily.

Elizabeth, though, had no intentions of obeying her father's wishes. She was going in there to get her mother back and make those bastards realize what it was like to anger the Vampire Slayer. She exited the car and went back round to the trunk where the Medjai and her father were loading up. In the trunk was a mini armory: a shotgun, a submachine gun, pistols, a rifle, and other weapons. Elizabeth shook her head. Her father was such a paranoid man. She had daggers sheathed on each side of both her boots, a sharp wooden stake in her inside pocket, and her long black travel coat effectively concealed the short sword sheathed at her back. So she was a little cautious herself. Her hands were itching for a crossbow and she wished she had gone back up to her massacred bedroom to retrieve it.

The two men didn't notice her at first but kept speaking in low voices.

"Want the twelve-gauge?" Rick offered the man.

Ardeth said, "No, I prefer the Thompson."

"I prefer a sniper rifle myself," Elizabeth spoke up, leaning against the car.

Rick looked up in surprise and frowned. "Where do you think you're going? Get back in the car."

Elizabeth sighed. "You've forgotten already how well I can handle myself? You wanted me to explain, didn't you? Well, I'll bargain with you. Let me go in there without protest and I will tell you everything."

Ardeth's onyx-colored eyes darted from the girl to her father patiently. He noticed the way the girl held herself and her sparkling dark blue eyes that were fraught with cold fury and fortitude. She exuded the aura of a warrior, a fighter, and it was extremely intriguing. He had no doubt that this girl was quite capable of holding her own in a battle. Yet it was not his place to intervene in this aspect.

Why was it that Rick figured she would go in there with or without his permission? Perhaps it was because of the way she looked so much like her mother. With her mother's dark brown tresses braided down her back and her cobalt eyes gleaming with determination Rick was hard put to say no even in a situation such as this. He remembered quite well how she had handled those attackers in her room like she had been born to fight. But she had already been wounded once and Rick was not going to let that happen again because the next time she might not be so lucky. Yet, the girl stood there: strong and deadly with her mother's eyes boring into him.

"Trust me Dad, if there are things in there other than humans—Let's just say, you'll like having me around," Elizabeth told him cryptically.

Rick gritted his teeth and let out a hissing sigh. He reluctantly picked up the rifle and handed it to his daughter. She smiled at him gratefully, Evelyn's smile. Rick felt his heart clench painfully at the thought of his wife. They had to get her back.

He reached for the machine gun and Ardeth Bay caught a glimpse of his tattoo. He smiled knowingly to himself and said to Rick, "If I were to say to you: 'I am a stranger traveling from the East seeking that which is lost'...."

Rick frowned is the invisible barrage holding back memories from long ago gave way slightly, the breach having been triggered by the Medjai's words. He murmured the last words almost robotically, "I would reply: 'I am a stranger traveling from the West, it is _I_ whom you seek.'" He looked inquisitively at Ardeth as if the man would know how he knew that, which surprisingly he did.

Ardeth gave Rick an appraising grin. "Then it is true. You are a Masonic Templar."

Elizabeth was lost. "A what?"

Ardeth pointed to his tattoo and said, "You have the mark."

Elizabeth's eyes perked up to see her father's tattoo more closely. Come to think of it she _might_ have seen his tattoo in one of her watcher's books. Yet, it was probably because she wasn't a real bookish type of girl, or at least the books that her watcher owned were not her type. She most definitely was one with a selective memory.

"What, this?" Rick jerked his hand away. "I got it slapped onto me when I was in an orphanage in Cairo."

"That mark means you are a Protector of man, a warrior for God, a Medjai," Ardeth informed him.

_Protector of man, warrior for God; I wonder where I've heard that before. It must run in the family._ Elizabeth's mind reached back to a little over a year ago when a man named Roland Deavers from the Watchers Council had rattled off a speech similar to the one Ardeth Bay was feeding to her father.

Rick stared at the Medjai for a moment before shaking his head, denying it. "Sorry. You've got the wrong guy."


	4. Into the Fire

Five reviews now! That's even better. Keep 'em coming people. Thank you to **Saxifrage**, **Wintersong**, **immortalwizardpirateelf-fan**, and **Lilylynn.**

**Saxifrage: **Yeah, I figured you meant kick instead of kiss. Elizabeth is not one to kiss ass lol. What's a loofa? Not that I don't want one, but I've never heard of it that I can recall lol.

**immortalwizardpirateelf-fan**: Yeah, Evy would make a great watcher. I believe the next chapter will cover the explanations and everything.

**Chapter Four Title: **Into the Fire

--------------------

With grim, hard sets to their faces and their weapons ready to be used, the three rescuers went into the museum to retrieve what was stolen. The British Museum was a mesmerizing plethora of ancient artifacts and history. It was dark in the museum and the statues and mummies leered out at the three people menacingly. Elizabeth's eyes adjusted quickly to the lack of light and she was able to discern between shadow and object easily. One of those perks of being a slayer was better night vision, albeit not as good as a vampire's. She sharpened her senses mentally and could hear every soft, tense breath taken by the men with her. She could have detected the dropping of a pin, but it was voices, possibly chanting voices, that she was listening for.

They proceeded through the Egyptian Gallery, silent as hunters on the prowl. Elizabeth wasn't quite sure, but she thought she could hear—yes it was. Chanting. Low chanting in a language she couldn't decipher, which was a sign that it was the ones they were looking for. Ardeth and Rick had not heard it until they got closer and then they froze and looked at each other. Elizabeth beckoned them forward, knowing she didn't need to tell them to be silent.

Rick couldn't believe he had agreed to let Elizabeth come along. True, she was doing spectacularly and she was displaying no signs of hesitation or fear as of yet. But what if she got hurt? As they approached the storage room and the chanting got even louder Rick was almost ready to tell his daughter to turn back. Yet he knew she wouldn't leave despite his wishes so he remained silent.

The room was crammed with boxes, crates, sarcophagi, statues, and other objects the adventurers had no idea what they were. Torches lined the wall in iron brackets and set dim glows upon the room. Elizabeth stopped—Rick had forgotten she was in the lead somehow—and pointed to the catwalk high above them. Ardeth Bay seemed to approve and began to climb, Rick waited until Elizabeth began to climb and went up after her.

--------------------

Groggy from the drug-induced sleep, Evelyn blearily cracked her eyes open. She was lying on top of a stone slab in the center of a large storage room, her hands and feet bound. Men in red turbans, which were quickly becoming distasteful to her eyes, littered the room and she paled. Where had they taken her? What were they going to do with her? She gasped in horror as she laid eyes upon the giant, piece of rock with a twisted, familiar figure inside, its rotted face contorted in expressions of absolute agony.

"Oh no. They found him," Evelyn whispered, feeling a massive pit drop into her stomach. "Imhotep."

As the men kept chanting the Curator put the Book of the Dead in front of the rock and read in ancient Egyptian: "Rise up! Rise up! Rise up!"

Evelyn wanted to scream for the fool to stop; to not make the same mistake she did. She wanted to scream out that they had no idea what they were dealing with, but she assumed correctly that her pleas would fall on deaf ears. They meant for this to happen. They meant to re-resurrect the mummy, Imhotep. There was nothing she could do—bound, helpless, and isolated from her husband and children—to stop them.

--------------------

Standing atop the catwalk, the Medjai, the ex-Legionnaire, and the Slayer searched through the mass of red-turbaned bodies for a familiar form in a black dress. Red was quickly becoming the most despicable color to Elizabeth. It seemed all these men wore was red; red for blood, red for anger. It was disgustingly uniform. _Would it kill you lot to mix colors?_

"There she is!" Rick whispered, pointing to Evelyn sitting bound on top of a stone slab. He noted with floating relief that she was alive and conscious.

Elizabeth's eyes traveled from her mother to the stone in the center of the room. She recognized that stone. Where had she seen it before? With a start she realized it was the one from her dreams, the one with the twisted, agonized, mummified corpse in the middle. _Oh shit, that can't be good._

"Dad? Is that Imhotep?" Elizabeth's voice was tight, but had an underlying tone of trepidation.

Rick looked closer and his heart palpitated. "Yeah, that's him all right."

_Feck!_ _That's what my dreams were trying to tell me! That Imhotep would arise soon! God, why didn't I see it?_ Unfortunately, lacking the talent of dream interpretation (in other words she needed most things spelled out for her) and having never set eyes upon the creature there really was no way she could have seen it coming. That small consolation did nothing to allay her disgust with her self.

Rick quipped poignantly, "You know, once this all would have seemed really strange to me." He was referring to the men gathered around the rock-encased mummy chanting and bowing.

The three separated with Elizabeth's mumbled promise to not do anything stupid and to stay behind something sturdy if possible. At different positions from the catwalk they witnessed with mingled horror and morbid fascination as Imhotep came back to life.

--------------------

Evelyn struggled vainly while the mummy ceased being stationary and began to flail within its makeshift tomb. It broke through its prison to regard the bowing mortals surrounding it. It nodded. Speaking in the ancient Egyptian tongue, it asked in a guttural voice, "What year is it?"

The Curator, eager to please his undead lord, replied in its language, "My Lord, it is the Year of the Scorpion."

"Truly?"

"Yes."

Imhotep laughed a roaring laugh that reverberated ominously off the walls of the storage room. Then he stopped laughing and whirled around. Evelyn followed his gaze to see Meela walking towards the thing that was once a man. Evelyn squinted at the woman as the whisperings of a long-dead memory sounded in her mind and the scenery was changed once again such as in the catacombs of the temple where they found the Bracelet of Anubis. Instead of the slinky, black gown Meela wore she was nearly nude save for gold paint from head to toe and walking through the palace of the Pharaoh. It was then that frightening revelation assaulted Evelyn. Meela was Anck-Sunamun, tragic lover of Imhotep. The vision receded and Evelyn was looking upon the Meela of modern times once more standing before Imhotep.

"Do not be frightened," the Curator urged.

Without taking her eyes off Imhotep Meela responded in English, "I am not afraid." In Ancient Egyptian she addressed the figure before her, "I am Anck-Sunamun reincarnated."

Imhotep lovingly fingered a strand of her hair. "Yes, but only in body. But soon, I shall raise your soul up from the depths of the underworld."

Not far away from the reunion of the two ancient lovers, Lock-Nah poured acid into the keyhole of the Scorpion King's chest. The Curator joined him and said eagerly, "Lord Imhotep will be most pleased."

Nodding, Lock-Nah opened the chest to find only a small statue.

"Where is it? Where is the Bracelet of Anubis!?" the Curator sputtered anxiously.

Lock-Nah growled, "I think I know."

--------------------

Leaning against Rick's car Alex and Jonathan passed the time by talking of what the boy knew of the Lost Oasis of Ahm Shere.

"At the top of the gold pyramid was a huge diamond,."

Jonathan swallowed with an emotion akin to lust. "Huge? How huge?"

Alex looked his uncle in the eye and said, "It was so huge, it could reflect the sunlight and wink at distant travelers, beckoning them to their deaths."

--------------------

Elizabeth was sorely tempted to blow the head off the bitch that was talking to the mummy called Imhotep. She felt she would be completely justified in the fact that she had intruded onto _her_ territory, brought a snake into said territory, threw said snake in said territory, and completely wrecked said territory by having her men spray bullets all over the place. And the icing on the cake of misery was that this woman was somehow completely responsible for the kidnapping of her mother. She wasn't sure exactly how, but she felt it was true. Nobody touched Elizabeth Nefertiri O'Connell's own and got away with it. Nobody.

Unfortunately, as a vampire slayer, Elizabeth was forbidden to kill humans. She was sure self-defense or defense of someone else were loopholes just like it was for normal humans, but she wasn't entirely sure. Not only that, but the girl was under strict orders to not act until her father did. So she stayed behind a wooden column with her rifle aimed and ready to fire watching the spectacle below carefully.

Meela looked Imhotep right into his empty eye socket, smiling maliciously. She gestured to Evelyn on the stone slab. "I have a gift for you, my love."

Imhotep saw Evelyn and exclaimed in disgust, "Her!"

"I knew it would please you to watch her die," Meela told him.

Imhotep's misshapen face twisted into a grotesque smile of satisfaction. Meela snapped her fingers and men lifted Evelyn's stone slab up and carried her towards a sarcophagus filled with a crackling fire. Evelyn struggled wildly.

"Oh my God!"

Imhotep's cruel laughter rang throughout the storage room. "The underworld awaits you!"

Evelyn shot him the most purely malignant, defiant glare she could muster. "You wait! I'll put you in your grave again!"

Above, even though Elizabeth was beginning to panic and was near to squeezing the trigger or jumping down to rescue her mother she had to smile at that remark. Let it never be said her mother could not get in a last word. It seemed, though, the Curator would be the one to get in the last remark this time.

"I'm thinking not before we put you in your grave first."

The men carrying Evelyn on the slab halted right before the flaming coffin and Meela yelled Imhotep's command in English, "Burn her!"

_Dad, hurry up!_ Elizabeth was beginning to rise, afraid he wouldn't reach her in time.

The slab tilted downwards and Evelyn rolled off, but instead of going into the fiery sarcophagus she rolled into the arms of her husband.

Not even stopping to take a breath of relief Elizabeth took that as her cue and nailed a red-turbaned man right in the back of the knee. She promised herself she wouldn't shoot to kill unless one was charging after her parents and they could handle themselves. Ardeth Bay dispensed with the pleasantry of merely wounding and rained bullets down from the Thompson down on the men below catching many in the deluge of death. Everyone began ducking for cover. With Meela behind him, Imhotep stood and let the bullets rip into his body.

--------------------

Hearing the gunfire, Jonathan and Alex exchanged frightened looks and practically dove for the car door.

Alex cried frantically to his uncle, "Open it! Open it! Open it!"

"I'm trying!" Jonathan shouted.

As the front door swung open, the two wasted no time in jumping into the car. Jonathan jammed the key into the ignition, but his body was currently running on complete irrational fear mode and his hands shook uncontrollably. He snapped the key by turning it too hard.

Alex gasped, "You broke it! You broke it!"

Jonathan pounded the wheel and yelled back, "Be quiet Alex! If there are going to be any hysterics, they'll come from me."

--------------------

Rick cut Evelyn's bonds while simultaneously pumping his shotgun at the priests who swarmed the husband and wife. He struck quite a few in the chests and sent them screaming into the flaming sarcophagus that had almost swallowed his wife. Ardeth Bay and Elizabeth were keeping the outside ring of priests away from Rick and Evelyn from the catwalk above. At least he hoped Elizabeth was part of that, it was hard to tell if it wasn't just the Thompson doing all the work. He prayed his daughter was all right.

He handed Evelyn a revolver and both backed towards the stairs up to the catwalk while shooting at their multitude of attackers. Imhotep saw Rick and roared, "You!"

_Oh good, he recognizes me._

Elizabeth and Ardeth Bay were both working their way to Rick and Evelyn, darting from cover to cover and trying to keep the attention focused on themselves and away from the pair below. Elizabeth didn't bother running from cover to cover, she used her slayer prowess as an advantage and leaped from one to the other. Her heart was pounding on her ribs mercilessly. She had never been in this sort of battle before, but a battle was a battle. The primary objective of a slayer in any battle was: don't die. Elizabeth had no rebellious teenage compunction to argue with that objective.

Imhotep raised the black urn brought from Hamunaptra and chanted, "Rise, ye my servants! Collect your bones! Gather your limbs! Shake the earth from your flesh! Your Master is here!"

"Oh shit, that can't be good what he's doing," Elizabeth murmured as she ran towards her parents and watched below.

Indeed it was not good what Imhotep was doing for four soldier-mummies had formed out of the sand from the urn.

She reached her parents and her mother stuttered in shock, "Rick! You let our daughter come in here!?"

"Later, honey." Rick saw the newly formed foes and grumbled, "Not these guys again."

Imhotep gestured towards the four on the catwalk and commanded his soldiers in the ancient language, "Destroy them!"

Rick grabbed onto his wife who gripped her daughter's hand and they ran for their lives again. Ardeth Bay pounded after them. Elizabeth kept running over and over in her mind, _We are dead! We are very bloody dead! I can't fight those things if mortal weapons don't kill them! _

Outside Jonathan had become what he had predicted: hysteric. He and his nephew stood outside the now useless car.

"What are we going to do?! What are we going to do?!" Jonathan screamed at the boy.

Alex retorted in disbelief, "You're asking _me_? I'm only eight years old for cripes' sakes!"

--------------------

Elizabeth was practically dragging her parents through the museum having taking the lead and kicked into a higher gear subconsciously. If she was going to find those mummy things, she'd much rather do it on her turf, or rather outside without all the red-turbaned buggers with guns and Imhotep around. They busted out the door and Evelyn turned back to move a bench in front of the double-door entrance. Rick came running back after her saying, "Honey, what are you doing? These guys don't use doors."

Proving the man right, the brick wall exploded as the four soldier-mummies came barreling through. The quartet reached the front of the museum and were all shocked to find the car abandoned.

"Where are Jonathan and Alex?" Elizabeth asked anxiously. She was barely out of breath, everyone else seemed exhausted.

A red double-decker bus came careening around the corner and pulled up beside them. Jonathan was at the wheel and Alex was inside waving.

"Alex!" Evelyn cried in relief. She promptly ran onto the bus to engulf her son in a crushing embrace.

Rick glowered at Jonathan. "What's wrong with my car?"

Jonathan replied nervously, "We were forced to find an alternative form of transportation."

"A double-decker bus?!"

"Works for me," Elizabeth muttered, jumping on board.

Jonathan pointed his finger at Alex and said accusingly, "It was his idea!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Was not!"

"Just go!" Evelyn, Elizabeth, and Rick cried at the same time.

Rick and Ardeth Bay stood at the back of the bus as Jonathan pressed on the accelerator. The two warriors watched as the four soldier-mummies leaped on top of Rick's car.

"Oh no! Not my car!" Rick cried, but it was too late. The creatures crushed the roof in.

Rick clenched his fists in fury. "Oh, I hate mummies."

"Are you glad to see me _now_?" Ardeth quipped.

"Just like old times, huh?" Rick replied before skirting to the top level with his reloaded shotgun.

Rick watched the soldier-mummies leap forward and shriek with rage and bloodlust. As soon as they got in range Rick fired his shotgun. The shells blasted off many ribs of the mummies, but they simply just changed course a bit. Instead of running down the road they jumped into the air and began running horizontally along the sides of the buildings.

"Right," Rick mumbled, remembering the same trick pulled at Hamunaptra.

One came hurtling towards him and he fired at it point-blank in the face. The close proximity caused the creature's entire body to explode. _One down, three more mummies to go._

One mummy landed on top of the bus with a crunching sound. Rick pointed his weapon upwards and fired at the ceiling. The creature peeled the metal top away and Rick responded with a shotgun blast to the face. With an ear-splitting shriek the creature landed on him and the gun flew out of Rick's hands and skittered down the aisle. He briefly remembered Elizabeth's words from before, _"If there are things in there other than humans—Let's just say you'll like having me around._ Oddly enough, she had been right and he wished she was here now.

--------------------

Elizabeth stood protectively in front of her mother and brother with her rifle reloaded and ready to fire. She was worried about her father, but she had more faith in his ability to protect himself than she did her mother and brother's. So she remained with them and Ardeth Bay on the lower level. The Slayer and the Medjai watched the soldier-mummies disappear from view, but both knew they were not gone. Aside from the fact that it would be completely daft of her to assume they had just left, Elizabeth could sense their proximity. Every being she had ever encountered whether it be human, vampire, demon, animal, or other (she filed mummies under other) had left an unique and indelible imprint on her sixth sense. It was a dead useful trick.

One of them slammed against the window where the Medjai stood and he was pushed backwards. Elizabeth shot it and Ardeth quickly recovered to fire up the Thompson. The bullets tore the creature in half sending its lower half to the ground. With that threat assumingly averted Ardeth took the time to reload, but the creature wasn't done yet. It swooped in, upper-half all that was left, and swiped the Thompson out of his hands. Ardeth backed up as the creature raised its hand with extremely long, razor-sharp nails to swipe at him again. A bullet ripped into its face and left a gaping hole that temporarily threw it off course.

Elizabeth came to the Medjai's aid, using the butt end of the rifle to hit the mummy across the face. It was thrown to the very rear of the bus, slamming up against the rear window smashing the glass. Yet it still remained on the bus much to Elizabeth's disappointment.

Faster than she could imagine a creature with only an upper half could move it swooped down upon her, knocking the rifle out of her hands and half-struck, half-slashed at her chest. Its claws tore through her jacket and shirt, cutting deep across her breasts. Crimson liquid splattered onto the seat and Elizabeth stumbled back into Ardeth Bay.

"Lizzie!" her mother cried.

_Oh son of a bitch. This really hurts! _Elizabeth looked down at the five identical slash marks oozing blood and smoldered. The creature came at them again, but Ardeth and Elizabeth were ready for it. She unsheathed her short sword with a quick, practiced motion and swung at the creature. Ardeth seemed surprised that she had a weapon hidden on her, but could not dwell on it as he ducked a swipe from the mummy.

Evelyn held onto Alex tightly while watching in horror and amazement as her daughter battled a creature with a skill Evelyn didn't know she possessed. And since when did she carry a sword around?

_It is quite sad when you begin to miss the good old fashioned vampire_, Elizabeth mused grimly. This creature was stronger and quicker than she was, and definitely more so than Ardeth Bay. But the two warriors had the advantage of having a full body while the soldier-mummy was forced to grope around the bars like an ape. It was almost amusing.

The mummy slashed at Ardeth at the chest and the man was pushed down into a seat. Elizabeth swung with her sword but it sidestepped (or sideswung is more like it) the blow and gripped her arm. With a heave it threw her against the windows. The tremendous force behind the throw caused threads of pain to scatter all over Elizabeth's body as she collided with the metal wall and glass windows. The glass shattered and cut into her backside while the rest of her body vibrated from the collision with metal. She grunted in pain. Her vision began to recede into darkness as she dropped back to the floor. Evelyn and Alex screamed her name.

--------------------

Things weren't going much better on the upper deck either. The soldier-mummy Rick was battling was currently attempting to crush the life out of him. When he tried to roll over the mummy caught him by the throat and lifted his body to slam him into the ceiling. Then the mummy began to choke the life out of him.

As he struggled to breathe he saw black spots. He was trying to break free, but the creature was far too strong for him. The swerving of the bus was what saved his life. Both Rick and the mummy were thrown off-balance and Rick was released from the death grip. He grabbed his shotgun, but before he could even grasp the trigger the bus swerved again and the shotgun clattered down to the hood of the bus. The mummy caught him by back of the throat and began to squeeze the life out of him again.

--------------------

It was the swerving of the bus that shocked Elizabeth out of her half-conscious state into a tenuous consciousness. Her blurry vision caught sight of Ardeth standing over her, protecting her from the mummy. Her mother had reached her and was gripping her shoulders.

"Mum, I'm all right," Elizabeth assured her. She felt like she had just been run over a few times by a double-decker and some of her back ribs were probably broken, but she was alive. Had she not been the Slayer, she wouldn't even be conscious.

Ardeth was pushed back yet again away from the fallen girl. He reeled in surprise to see her stumbling to her feet. By all rights she should have been out cold after being thrown so hard up against the side of the bus. She was a little unsteady on her feet, but she was very awake. And very incensed.

"Ow," she said.

_Ugh, this must be what a hangover feels like_, Elizabeth thought as the hammer in her head pummeled her brain. She sensed the creature swinging at her just in time to bend over backwards and do a back-handspring. Her body greatly protested that impulsive evading maneuver and she was feeling the objections all over. She hadn't been very tired after the row at the manor or after rescuing her mother, but after that severe blow dealt to her body exhaustion was beginning to gain more ground. Slayer stamina was miraculous, but it did have limits.

She sidestepped another swipe and punched it in the chest. Her punch was given with a bit too much force. Since it was a mummy with not much solidity her fist went all the way through its back. She could hear the intakes of breath from every other human on the lower level and heard her brother's admired shout, "Whoa cool!". Elizabeth was thinking more, _Whoa gross!, _and quickly pulled her hand free.

"Ewww!" she squealed. After all, she was still a typical female in some ways.

The bus swerved again and she was thrown into Ardeth Bay who tumbled back into the seats. The mummy seemed to actually have some dried up brains and hung on for its dear unlife.

Amidst the battle between the humans and the mummy Evelyn was startled from her shocked state when she heard the clattering sound on the hood. She turned instinctively and saw that it was a shotgun. She reached out the side window and snatched it off the hood. Turning back to where the mummy was just about to attack Elizabeth and Ardeth again she blasted the bloody thing's head off. It should expect nothing less for harming her daughter like that.

She pumped the gun and pushed the barrel up against the mummy's ribcage and fired again sending the thing down the aisle. It didn't get back up. Elizabeth and Ardeth Bay breathed audible sighs of relief. Their relief was broken by Jonathan's yelled, "Uh oh!" That was never a good sign.

Everyone looked ahead and paled when they saw a low hanging bridge that the bus was hurtling towards. Jonathan was going too fast to turn away from that now.

"We're not going to make it!" Alex cried.

--------------------

Rick saw the bridge amidst the black dots and managed somehow to wrestle himself free of the creature's death grip. He immediately dropped to the floor and put his hands over his head. The soldier-mummy didn't see the bridge until it was too late.

The top third of the double-decker was torn away from the bottom two-thirds with a grinding metal sound. Rick had his eyes squeezed shut the entire time as he prayed he wouldn't go with the top third. When the grinding sound ceased Rick figured it was safe to look up again. He sighed in relief as he saw that the soldier-mummy was gone along with the roof. He quickly descended the stairs to check on his family.

--------------------

Elizabeth had staggered over to her uncle with her short sword gripped in her hand, having picked it up where it had fallen from her hand. She engulfed the man in a hug and kissed him on the forehead. She had never been so happy with him.

"Great driving, Uncle Jon," she praised.

"Thanks," he replied breathlessly.

Another mummy, the fourth and final miscreant appeared in the open window. Jonathan screamed and pulled away. Elizabeth's first instinct was to shriek in surprise, which she did. Her second instinct was to chop the thing's head off, which she also did. The headless corpse tumbled to the ground. She heard an impressed whistle from the stairway. Before she could turn to respond she goggled at the corpse lying on the ground. _I just had to cut off its head?! Why must I do everything the hard way? Note to self: cutting off heads seems to incapacitate everything._

"Wow, that was pretty good sword work. Speaking of which, where did you get the sword?" Rick asked, with a grin. His grin disappeared when he saw the condition of his firstborn. Her jacket was torn in several places and stained with blood. Her shirt had five slash marks with blood having soaked the front of her shirt and a bit of blood was trickling down her forehead not to mention the various mottled yellowish bruises that assailed her. "Oh my god, are you all right?"

"As all right as anyone can be when they've been slammed into a wall with all the force a mummified-soldier brought back to life can possibly delve up," she replied nonchalantly.

Rick grimaced. Somehow he felt this was his fault.

"Dad! You shoulda seen her! Lizzie was amazing! She and that Medjai man fought that mummy and Lizzie hit it with her gun and sent it flying to the back and then she punched it and her fist went all the way through," Alex rattled off in frenzy of excitement.

Rick cocked an eyebrow at his daughter who suddenly became interested in her fingernails. "Did she now?"

"Yes, she most certainly was magnificent, which leads me to ask where it came from," Evelyn said. Although she really wasn't one to talk with her newfound fighting skills. Only Elizabeth seemed to have known exactly what she was doing whereas Evelyn had just been letting her hands move without her control and was perplexed by it.

"All right! I get it! I'll explain everything! I will! Only I have to sit down now because I'm seeing spots again," Elizabeth stammered. Rick quickly swooped the girl up and deposited her on a seat across from Ardeth Bay who was nursing his own wounds.

"You all right?" Rick asked with concern.

Ardeth gave him a wry smile. "I prefer the company of camels." He nodded towards Rick's daughter. "Your daughter is a most accomplished warrior. She outshines a Medjai even. She suffered a hit that would have downed the hardiest of my men and still stood to fight on. You should be proud, my friend."

Rick was just as baffled as ever, but he was indeed proud. He smiled affectionately at Elizabeth who was currently holding her head between her knees, appearing to pay them no mind.

Rick then remembered who it was they had rescued from the fire that night and set his eyes on his beautiful wife. She smiled that seductive smile of hers and made a come-hither motion, which her husband was only too eager to oblige.

Alex groaned and walked to the other end of the bus, not wanting to be caught in the middle of the happy reunion between husband and wife.

"Get a room," he muttered.

It was great his parents had such deep love for one another, but really it was kind of gross to an eight-year-old boy to see them snog all the time. He instead focused on his sister's awesome fighting skills that he had witnessed earlier. She must teach him how to do some of those tricks. He never knew she had such a hidden talent.

Rick took Evelyn into his arms. She smiled and said, "What would I ever do without you?"

"Are librarians always this much trouble?" he joked before kissing her and releasing all the tension from his previous worries for her safety as his lips met hers.

The passion of the moment was cut short by Alex's muffled cry for help as a dark hand reached around and snatched the boy out of the bus. Elizabeth's head snapped up and she flew down the aisle, ignoring the shoots of pain all throughout her battered body, and out the bus. Her father was right on her heels. They both ran after the car Alex had been stuffed in, but someone was fiddling with the bridge mechanisms and it started to rise up on each side and separate as if a large boat were coming through. Elizabeth cursed her injured and temporarily weakened body that was slowing her down as the car sped farther and farther away taking Alex with it.

The car had already reached the other side before it began to split. Elizabeth leaped across the space between, but her assorted injuries had put a strain on her strong body and she slipped on the other side. She would have gone rolling down the road had she not grabbed onto the edge at the last second. Her father had jumped as well and was hanging on the other side of the edge. _Alex_, Elizabeth cried in anguish within her mind.

Her father echoed her words out loud. "Alex."


	5. Explanations on the Magic Carpet

Eek. I hope everything works out okay **Faerie of Egypt. **I live in western Maryland so I don't think I have much to worry about save lots of rain. Hurricane Isabel got us out of school and we lost power for about 24 hrs. but that was it. It helps when you live in the mountains I suppose. Anyhow, I hope you and your family and friends make it through safe and sound. Good luck and thanks for the review. And thanks to the rest of you who reviewed and to those who are reading but not reviewing. Come on! Throw me a bone here! Tell me what you think? Please?

**Saxifrage: **Oh yeah, now they sound vaguely familiar. lol. Thanks.

Also my thanks go out to: **Shann51** and **Lilylynn**.

**Chapter Five Title: **Explanations on the Magic Carpet

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Elizabeth could not remember the last time she had felt so miserable; so damn helpless. She sat at the edge of the River Thames and though all her wounds were dressed and bandaged she felt like she was still bleeding. She was bleeding sorrow and worry for her baby brother and residual guilt over his abduction. They had taken Alex because of the bracelet. She knew it was because of the bracelet. What other reason could there be? They had wanted the bracelet and it was practically welded onto the kid's wrist now, so to take that they had to take him too. Now the question was, would they kill him and cut the bracelet off? Elizabeth didn't even want to ponder over the grievous plight.

Alex may have been one of the most annoying "pain-in-the-arses" in the world, but she loved her brother dearly just the same. He was more precious to her than...anything. If he got hurt because of that bracelet she would never be able to forgive herself. She should never have left Alex alone with the bracelet in the first place. How could she have been so bloody careless?

Her parents were standing behind her talking in hushed, anguished voices. When she heard someone else approach she turned and saw that it was Ardeth Bay. She rose and went to stand between her mother and father, wanting to feel their comforting presence.

"Do not fear for the child, my friends," he addressed the distraught O'Connells. "They cannot harm him, for he wears the Bracelet of Anubis."

Elizabeth perked up. That was good news. That was very good news. So, the bracelet was protecting him from harm. That bought them some valuable time to get him back in one piece.

"Alex is wearing the bracelet?" Evelyn asked in surprise.

Rick nodded grimly. "When he put it on he said he saw the pyramids at Giza and the temple at Karnak."

Nodding, Ardeth said, "When they reach Karnak, the bracelet will show him the next step of the journey."

"To Ahm Shere," Elizabeth intoned softly.

"If we don't get there first, we won't have any idea where to go to next!" Evelyn cried, distressed all over again.

Rick was silent in deep contemplation for a while before saying, "Seems to me we need a magic carpet."

Sometimes, Elizabeth just didn't get her father.

--------------------

Armed men in red turbans rode on top of each car of the train as it pulled out of the Cairo train station and chugged through the Egyptian desert. The Curator and Meela were situated in a luxurious passenger car while Lock-Nah guarded Alex.

The Curator held the black Book of the Dead within the folds of his robes and was explaining to Meela, "When last Lord Imhotep encountered the O'Connells, they sent his immortal soul to the underworld. As powerful as he may become, he is still vulnerable. Only with the Army of Anubis will he be invincible." He handed the black book over to the dark-haired, young woman. "Keep this with you always."

When Alex saw the book he exclaimed, "Hey, the Book of the Dead!"

Meela grinned at the boy. "What a bright little child." She kneeled down to Alex's level and said sweetly, "Your mother must be missing you terribly." Her tone changed from sweet to cold. "If you wish to see her again you had better behave."

Alex snorted. "Lady, I don't behave for my parents. What makes you think I'm going to do the same for you."

Meela smirked and pecked Alex on the cheek. "Cuz your parents wouldn't slip poisonous snakes into your bed while you were sleeping."

Alex's eyes widened.

"Lord Imhotep wishes to meet the boy," the Curator informed them.

Lock-Nah nodded and dragged Alex out of the room as Red Lasher, Spivey, and Jacques entered with a blanket-covered box.

"Did you acquire what we asked?" the Curator queried, eyeing the men suspiciously.

"Oh, we _acquired_ it all right. Had to kill a couple guards at the museum to _acquire_ it," Red answered cockily.

Jacques pulled the blanket away and there sat the chest that would enable Imhotep to regain full power once again. When the Curator reached for the box the brawny Frenchman snatched it back saying ominously, "Zis chest is cursed. It says, zere is one, ze undead, who will kill all zose who open it—"

The Curator cut him off in exasperation. "Yes, yes. And suck them dry and he'll become whole again. We have all heard this story before."

"We also heard that those American chaps that found the chest over fifteen years ago all died. Horrible deaths they were," Red told him. He then added importantly, "So, with that in mind—"

"We want ten," Spivey finished.

"The agreement was for five," the Curator said coolly.

"We want ten, or we'll take our business elsewhere," Red replied, not willing to be denied.

Meela stopped the Curator before he spoke and said to the three men with a malicious smile, "Ten will be just fine. If you will follow me, gentlemen, you shall receive your just reward."

--------------------

Lock-Nah brought Alex into a car that had been transformed into a temporary Egyptian temple. A cloaked figure stood amidst the torches and burning incense. Lock-Nah bowed before it and Alex started to panic.

When the creature turned around Alex let out a muffled scream and backed away. It was a rotted mummy that was alive. It was Imhotep.

Imhotep began to speak to the boy, who while not having a firm grasp on the ancient Egyptian language like his mother quite yet understood every word he said by some mystical means. "It is you who are the chosen one, you who will lead me to Ahm Shere."

Alex tried to quell his mounting panic. "What if I don't? What if I get a little...lost?" He took a leaf out of his mother and sister's books and raised an eyebrow to accentuate the hint he was trying to give.

Imhotep's ghastly face split into a malicious grin. "You have strength, little one. You are your father's son. But I know something you do not." He grabbed the boy's wrist that had the bracelet on it and said, "This bracelet is a gift and a curse. The sands of time have already begun to pour against you."

Alex scoffed. "Yeah, yeah. I already heard this part. I put the bracelet on, seven days later the Scorpion King wakes up.

Imhotep's resulting laugh was nerve-wracking. "Did you also hear that if you do not enter the pyramid before the sun hits it on the morning of the seventh day, the bracelet will suck the life out of you?"

Alex gasped. "_That_ part I missed. Wait a minute! That means I only have five days left!"

"I think it would be best then if we did not get lost, don't you?"

Anger surged through Alex's veins and he shot the mummy a look of pure loathing to match the look his mother gave the creature two nights ago.

"My dad is going to kick your ass," he promised, pronouncing the curse word in true American fashion just like his father. Remembering his sister's actions against the soldier-mummies on the bus he then smiled and added, "And so will my sister."

--------------------

Before going off to find Rick's magic carpet the O'Connells, Jonathan, and Ardeth Bay returned to the manor to procure provisions for their rescue trip. Elizabeth took out the studded leather armor her watcher had given to her for her one year anniversary as vampire slayer and strapped it on. The outfit had various hidden and unhidden places for weapons to be stored and Elizabeth stocked up as much as she could. She put on a thin, dark green flannel buttoned shirt with sleeves that reached to her elbows like her mother wore to hide the weapons on her person more effectively. She put the weapons she didn't carry—which consisted of arsenal of battle axes, knives, dirks, falchions, daggers, brass knuckles, glaives etc.—in black bags and strapped crossbows and quivers full of bolts on her back. Her father and Ardeth Bay would be sure to take care of the guns. She then made sure Ebony was safe and had enough food and water to last for a couple of weeks.

Before leaving she had a message sent off to her watcher saying that she must return to Egypt for personal reasons and that she would notify him immediately upon her return. She pulled her thick nearly black hair up and pinned it to keep it out of her face. After finishing preparing herself she chanced a look in a bathroom mirror and saw that she was ready for battle.

Rick's jaw nearly dropped when he saw his daughter walk downstairs dressed like she was a soldier going off to battle. The studded leather suit aside, she had a crossbow slung across her back and a quiver of bolts hung at her side above the long sword sheathed in a scabbard at her hips. She was also carrying three bulky bags that looked extremely heavy but seemed to weigh very little to the girl carrying them. Where in the hell did she acquire all that? His curiosity was piqued even higher and she smiled sheepishly at everyone's bewildered expressions. Ardeth Bay seemed the be the only one looking upon her with understanding and she had an inkling he knew what she was about. Scary.

"I know. I'll explain as soon as we get on that magic carpet of yours, Dad," Elizabeth told them.

Rick nodded curtly. "Fair enough."

"At least let one of them carry those bags. They look awfully heavy," Evelyn pointed out.

Elizabeth smiled and held one of the black bags out. "Have at it."

Jonathan took the bag and was dragged down by its weight, but he put a brave face on the matter and heaved it up with a groan as they walked out of the manor to rescue Alex and stop Imhotep from destroying the world. Well, at least her watcher couldn't say she was lazy on her vacation from patrol duty.

--------------------

Two days later the O'Connells and Jonathan were cruising through the desert in Cairo in a rented car. Ardeth Bay had left them to gather his brethren and would meet them there. They reached a dilapidated airstrip with a single paneled hangar. Over the door a rickety hanging sign read _Magic Carpet Airways._

Evelyn and Elizabeth looked at it skeptically and then back at Rick.

"_This_ is your magic carpet?" Evelyn asked.

"It'll be fine. Izzy's a professional."

A greasy, black man with an eye patch over his left eye walked out of the door preparing to greet his customers. When he saw Rick, he stopped right in his tracks.

"Izzy!" Rick greeted heartily.

Izzy did not seem to share the happy sentiment. With a whimper he turned right around on his heels shutting and locking the door. Elizabeth and Evelyn laughed in spite of themselves.

"He definitely remembers you," Evelyn quipped.

"He's just a little shy," Rick said.

"More like terrified. What did you to do him, Dad?"

"Jonathan, get our bags!" Rick ordered.

"Um, my hands are rather full—"

"Now!" Rick ordered, grabbing the scepter from Jonathan's hands and handing it to Elizabeth.

"Right, right!"

Rick pulled his gun out and shot the door handle off. Evelyn sighed and said, "Honey, you're not a subtle man."

Rick kicked the door open. "We don't have time for subtle."

The hangar was comprised of three walls and a roof. It was absolutely filthy and Elizabeth was afraid to touch anything for fear of contracting some horrible bacterial disease. No telling what manner of things had gone on in this place. Whatever had been going on, this place obviously lacked a woman's touch.

"He doesn't look exactly thrilled to see you, Dad," Elizabeth remarked.

"He's never turned me down yet."

Izzy was at a desk gathering maps and scrolls and stuffing them into a backpack. "Whatever it is, whatever you need, I don't care! Forget it, O'Connell! Every time I hook up with you I get shot! Last time I got shot in the arse! I'm in mourning for my arse!"

Elizabeth and Evelyn looked at Rick inquisitively who shrugged as if he had no idea what the man was talking about.

"Remember that bank job in Marrakesh?" Izzy continued.

Elizabeth giggled with mirth at the thought of her father, the proud ex-Legionnaire doing a bank job. "Bank job?"

Rick made a placating gesture. "It's not like it sounds."

"Uh, it's exactly how it sounds. I'm flying high, hiding in the sun, the white boy flags me down so I fly in low for the pickup. Next thing you know I get shot! I'm lying in the middle of the road with my spleen hanging out and I see _him_ waltzing up with some belly dancer girl."

Evelyn cocked an eyebrow. "Belly dancer girl? Izzy, I think you and I should talk."

"Long as I don't get shot," Izzy replied.

Elizabeth sighed and began to twiddle the scepter in boredom. Slayers had massive reserves of energy and after resting for two days to recuperate from her wounds she was ready to get back in action. Except lately there hadn't been any action to be had. Wait a minute? Was that a man reading a newspaper in a bathtub out in the open?

Rick groaned and pulled out a wad of money. "Quit your whining. You're getting paid this time." He threw the wad at Izzy.

Izzy examined the bills and scoffed. "O'Connell, you don't travel here any. What do I need money for? What the hell am I going to spend it on?"

Rick sighed. "I'm gonna keep this short. My little boy is out there and I'm going to do whatever it takes to get him back." He paused when he noticed Izzy's eyes were trained on something else behind Rick so she looked back to see his daughter twirling the scepter around in her hands like a baton and Izzy's eyes were following its every move.

"O'Connell, you give me that gold stick your girl is holding and you can shave my head, wax my legs and use me for a surfboard," Izzy bargained.

Elizabeth stopped twirling when her sensitive ears picked up that bit and she grimaced at the rather grotesque images that conjured up. _Thank you so much for the nightmares to come._

Rick thought the deal was fair enough and asked Elizabeth to hand it over. When Izzy got the stick Rick said to him, "Didn't we do that in Tripoli?"

Rick then remembered the eye patch and decided to inquire about it. "By the way, when did you lose your eye?"

Izzy laughed. "Oh, I didn't. Just thought it made me more dashing." The greasy man gave a sly grin full of rotted, yellow teeth with one gold tooth.

Rick ripped the patch off. No way was he going to allow a man to fly a plane carrying his wife and daughter with an eye patch if the man had two perfectly good eyes. He snapped his fingers saying, "C'mon! Get to work."

As they walked to where Ardeth Bay had finally arrived Izzy approached the two ladies of the group. "So, O'Connell actually reproduced. Sorry for your luck, lass. At least you look more like your mum there," he said to Elizabeth who cocked an eyebrow. "You're not exactly catching me at my best, though."

Evelyn draped an arm over her daughter's shoulders. "I'm sure we are."

They saw thirteen horsemen all dressed in the black robes of the Medjai, Ardeth Bay was ahead of them. He dismounted and approached the people in front of him.

Izzy whimpered. "I knew it. I'm gonna get shot."

"These are the commanders of the twelve tribes of the Medjai," he introduced. Then he called loudly while holding out a heavily gloved arm, "Horus!"

A falcon fluttered over to Ardeth Bay's arm and perched there. Elizabeth's eyes lit up appreciatively. She liked birds.

"Ah, a pet bird," Jonathan remarked.

"My best and most clever friend. He will let the commanders know of our progress so that they may follow," Ardeth explained. "If the Army of Anubis rises they will do all they can to stop it." He turned to his brethren and raised his hand in salute while saying, "Harum bara shad!" They repeated Ardeth's words and rode off.

Izzy led the rescuers to the hangar and they stopped in their tracks at what was before them.

"Dad, that's a balloon," Elizabeth told her father in disbelief.

"Isn't she beautiful?" Izzy asked with pride.

"It's a balloon!" Rick cried.

Izzy shook his head. "Ah, it's a dirigible."

"Where the hell's your airplane?" Rick asked.

Izzy waved that away. "Airplanes are a thing of the past."

Rick gritted his teeth. "Izzy, you were right."

The man looked confused. "I was?"

"Yeah, you're gonna get shot!" Rick pulled out a gun and aimed it at Izzy.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! She's faster than she looks and she's quiet. Real quiet. Perfect for sneaking up on people, which is a very good thing. Unless of course, we go with your approach," Izzy's voice became sardonic, "barging in face first, guns blazing and getting your friend shot in the arse."

Evelyn put a calming hand on her husband's arm as he thought this over. He shrugged and put his gun back in its holster.

Ardeth Bay shook his head disparagingly. "Why can't you people ever keep your feet on the ground?"

--------------------

As the dirigible drifted through the night sky everyone noticed that Izzy had been right about its silence. Perhaps it was better that they used this contraption rather than a large airplane. Elizabeth watched the moonlit clouds drift by aimlessly. Maybe it was because she was the Slayer and her foes usually came out at night, but she had always felt more comfortable at night in the dim lights of stars and moon than in the day. It was easier to hide and make yourself invisible in the nighttime.

She wondered anxiously if her brother had reached Karnak yet and ardently hoped he hadn't. But Alex was a clever kid like their mother and would find someway to let them know where to go. He had to because after the seven days were up, Imhotep would probably dispose of the boy, his purpose served in leading them to Ahm Shere. What more would they need of him after that? They had to find him before then.

She turned her head to the rustling sound behind her and saw her Uncle Jonathan sitting beside Ardeth Bay reaching behind his back and rummaging for something. Ardeth Bay was talking thoughtfully.

"O'Connell does not want to believe it, but he flies like Horus towards his destiny."

Jonathan didn't seem all that interested in Rick's destiny. "Yes, yes. Now, about that gold pyramid?"

Elizabeth cracked a wan smile at her uncle's ever-lust for treasure and gold that always got him into trouble. She sat down beside the two men, took out some stakes and for lack of anything better to do began sharpening them. Ardeth Bay glanced at her meaningfully. _He knew already, I suspect._ She was already going to have to explain to her parents soon. Why hide it any longer?

To Jonathan he said, "It is written that, since the time of the Scorpion King, no one who had laid eyes upon the pyramid has ever returned to tell the tale."

"Where is all this rubbish written?" Jonathan muttered before exclaiming, "Ah! There it is!" He pulled out the gold Scepter of Osiris. "Pretty nice, eh?"

The Medjai agreed and said, "If the Curator reacted to it the way you said it must be very important. You should keep it close."

Jonathan hugged it close. "My friend, the gods couldn't take this away."

Right then, Izzy snatched it out of the man's hands stating, "That's mine! Keep your hands off!"

Elizabeth and Ardeth Bay snickered at Jonathan's plight. Then Elizabeth looked at Ardeth and said, "You know, don't you? What I am; what I do. You know."

Jonathan looked extremely confused at those words, but Ardeth Bay simply nodded. "After seeing you rise from such a grievous injury I began to have my suspicions. Then when you walked down the stairs of your home carrying bags that two men would have had to carry with much effort, I knew. You are She."

Elizabeth nodded and turned her attention back to her work. Jonathan was utterly lost. "She? What she? What the bloody hell are you two going on about?"

"So, how long have you been fighting?" Ardeth asked inquisitively.

"Oh, a little over a year. I was Called a month past my fourteenth birthday and I've managed to not die in the first year like so many of my predecessors," Elizabeth replied nonchalantly.

"What? Die? What are you talking about?" Jonathan asked, starting to panic.

"Perhaps it is because you are your parents' daughter that you have survived. Do you not think it strange that your parents and uncle were the ones to defeat Imhotep the first time and now you have been Called as a Chosen One for God? Fate seems to have her eye fixed on the O'Connell and Carnahan blood," Ardeth told her ominously.

"I suppose that's a logical way of putting it. I came along because it's my duty to mankind, but also because I'm partly at fault for Alex putting on the bracelet," Elizabeth confessed in shame.

"How so?" Ardeth asked.

"When Mum, Dad, and I found the bracelet and Mum opened the chest...I felt its power...its evil. It called to me to put it on, to lose myself completely in temptation, but I resisted and fought it off. It was because I was the Slayer that I was able to fight it off but," she swallowed hard and wiped a tear away from her face, her voice was breaking with sorrow, "I let my own brother, my own flesh-and-blood, an eight-year-old child, carry the chest into our home. I left him alone with the cursed thing knowing what it was because I was too selfish. I had wanted nothing more to do with it and now I'm paying the price for not doing what I should have done. I should have thrown that thing into the bloody Thames."

Ardeth gripped her hand sympathetically. "Do not fret, my child. You are young, but you have had to mature fast. We all make mistakes. We will rescue your brother and avert this threat."

Elizabeth shook her head and whispered, "Alex is only a boy. He didn't have the strength of the Slayer to aid him. I should have seen that." She rubbed her temples. "I failed him. I failed my family."

"Come now, Lizzie. Chin up! With an attitude like that how do you expect to get him back?" Jonathan said jovially, putting his hand under her chin and pushing her head upwards. She smiled faintly and then Jonathan added, "Now if you two would be so kind to explain to me what the hell you were talking about, that would be nice."

Rick and Evelyn stood wrapped in each other's arms not far away from the other three talking quietly to one another.

"I want him back Rick, I want him in my arms," Evelyn cried softly.

"I know," Rick said, feeling the same as his wife.

Evelyn swallowed hard and said in a pained voice, "I just love him so much I can't bear it if..."

"I know, we both do and Lizzie does...most of the time. And Alex knows that. They're both smarter than you and tougher than me. He'll be all right." He kissed his wife on the top of her head and breathed, "I'll get him back, Evy. I promise."

Evelyn smiled and leaned back into her husband's embrace. "I know you will."

After a few quiet, intimate moments they walked back to join the group and Rick looked at Elizabeth meaningfully. She sighed. It was time for her to tell them the truth. Her mother sat by her and wrapped her in her arms for support. Elizabeth took comfort in her mother's presence and leaned back in the embrace.

"Mum, Dad, what do you know about vampires and demons and the like?" she began.

Her father frowned. "I would say they were myths, but after what I've seen I don't know what to think."

She continued, "Well, the world didn't begin like a paradise like it says in the Bible. It was the home of demons first...it was a hell. Then mortal creatures such as humans came about and usurped their way into the world as the dominant species. The demons began to leave into other dimensions, but one mixed his blood with a human creating a demon-human hybrid—the first vampire. He in turn mixed his blood with others creating more and more vampires and they fed off humans like leeches sometimes killing them, sometimes turning them. I don't know exactly when it happened, but it happened soon after the vampires were created."

"What are you getting at here, Lizzie?" Rick asked.

"Be patient, my friend," Ardeth Bay advised.

"What happened was a group of men, I suppose they were warlocks, took a young girl, a helpless girl, and imbued her with some demon power and called her the Vampire Slayer. The power gave the girl unimaginable physical strength, quick reflexes, superior stamina, superior speed, superior agility, accelerated healing, heightened senses, and a natural bit of fighting skill. They created it so that when she died, another girl would be Chosen to take her place and so it has been done like that for thousands of years. One Slayer dies, another is Called and she fights the good fight until she dies. A Slayer died around the time of my fourteenth birthday and one day soon after a man came to me after school and told me I had been Called. I am the Vampire Slayer now until I die."

Everyone, including Izzy, had been listening to the girl's speech that she had taken from her watcher's own speech of many speeches to her. She paused to gauge their reactions. An eerie silence had descended upon the dirigible with expressions of shock written on her parents' and uncle's faces.

All of a sudden Rick and Evelyn began to piece together all the little details from the past year that had made no sense to them, but now were starting to make sense. The little limps here and there, the winces Elizabeth sometimes made when she moved, the blood they glimpsed on her clothes that Rick had figured was just a woman thing with menstruation and being a man did not ask, when she stayed at home stating that she was ill, which she had looked ill. All those had been because she had been out almost every night battling creatures that should never have existed. Their daughter, their firstborn child, was out there every night literally stalking death, dancing with death, while they had slumbered peacefully at home. The skills she had exhibited three nights ago in her room and later in the British Museum, the strength she had shown fighting the soldier-mummies on the double-decker bus, the weapons she carried, the clothes she was wearing, her pleas to leave the catacombs of the temple where they found the Bracelet of Anubis because she had felt its evil power—it all began to make a sickening sense. It was a wakeup call of the worst kind.

"Oh my god," Evelyn murmured, covering her mouth with her hands to stifle a sob.

"Why....why didn't you tell us?" Rick asked.

"Really O'Connell, you can be so dense! Honestly, how would you have taken the news knowin that your girl was going out and rolling around in the dirt every night?" Izzy spoke up.

"Izzy, shut up and stay out of this," Rick growled.

"My identity is to be kept secret at all costs under the belief it would endanger myself and you lot if you knew. You don't know how badly I wanted to tell you. It was so hard and so lonely keeping it inside. I'm almost glad those blokes showed up at our house giving me an excuse to explain," Elizabeth said.

"How could you...do this...every night. It's so dangerous," her mother said.

Elizabeth sighed. "You think I wanted to? You think I chose this? It was never my choice to begin with, I was the one girl out of my generation given the power. I didn't ask for it, it was given to me, forced upon me and I had no choice but to oblige its will. What else could I do? Stay home like a good girl while people died from vampires when I could have stopped it?" Her parents exchanged glances and then looked back at Elizabeth. "I go out there every night knowing that one night, I won't come back." At that both her parents paled when they fully realized their daughter's predicament. "It's the legacy of my predecessors. We carry a burden that is ours alone. We know our lives have been shortened quite a bit and that our deaths will most likely _not_ be peaceful, but it's a small price to pay for the lives we save. I have even averted apocalypses! I know I will probably never see my eighteenth birthday, and at first I couldn't accept it, but now I have. I'm luckier than most slayers though because I have a home to return to. I have a loving family waiting for me at home and I think that's the major reason for my surviving my first year. The Watchers Council, the council that guards the slayer legacy and sends out people to train her and prepare her, thinks that having a home and family are obstacles to a slayer's success, but they're wrong. I read through the slayer records, most girls who died in their first years were kept isolated and lonely. They had no substantial reason to stay alive whereas others who lived with their families and had families of their own stayed alive longer because they had reasons to fight, to stay alive."

She let those words sink into everyone's heads before clearing things up a bit. "Don't you see? Mum, Dad, Uncle Jon, you and Alex are what keeps me alive. You are what gives me that extra strength whenever I'm in the cemeteries or alley ways fighting for my life. I do it for you."

Her mother began to weep and pulled Elizabeth in close whimpering, "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry."

Rick stayed frozen to his seat as he ran over and over in his mind the revelations his daughter had imparted to him. Of all the things he had expected as explanation from Elizabeth, this was wasn't even on the list. He felt a maelstrom of conflicting emotions billowing inside. He felt pride in his daughter's bravery, grief over her doomed fate, betrayal at not being told, anger at the ones who were responsible, anger at himself for not noticing something was different about Elizabeth after she turned fourteen. He had no idea whatsoever what she had been going through. What kind of father was he?

"Hold up! That was you! That night when I left the pub pissed as hell and these...things with disfigured faces attacked me. I mean...most I can't really recall, but I remember waking up in my apartment with a few bruises. Did you save me?" Jonathan recalled.

"Yeah, that was me. And those were vampires that attacked you, Uncle Jon," Elizabeth told him.

"Oh, thanks," Jonathan said.

"Is this why you never talked with your mother and I about colleges or career choices?" Rick asked quietly.

Elizabeth nodded grimly. "I didn't figure there was any point to it."

"Right," Rick replied, his voice tight and controlled.

"Have you...been hurt badly?" Evelyn asked, a little afraid to hear the answer.

Elizabeth went quiet for a while before speaking up, "Well, what would be really bad for you isn't really _always_ all that bad for me. A slayer can take more damage than the normal human, I don't bruise easily and my bones don't break as easily. And of course there's the fact that I heal very quickly. Look at my shoulder wound, you can barely see it now." She showed them the shoulder that had been grazed by a bullet three nights ago in her bathroom. All that was left was a pinkish scar.

"Incredible," Jonathan murmured.

"Yeah, it is a rather lovely perk," Elizabeth quipped. "Whenever I was hurt really bad and it would take a couple days to heal, I just feigned illness."

"Were you ever _really_ sick?" Rick asked, suddenly curious.

"Uh, I don't think so. No, I really don't get sick except for a cold here and there. I guess slayers have great immune systems too. Heh," Elizabeth mused.

"Well, you won't have to go out there alone anymore! Your father and I will—"

"No! No! No! New fighting skills or not Mum, you and Dad are not coming with me. It's my burden to carry alone, not yours. What keeps me alive is knowing you two are safe at home along with Alex. You could get me killed coming out there," Elizabeth protested adamantly.

"Evelyn, you must understand. The legend of the Slayer says, 'She _alone_ will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of evil.' You must not interfere. Elizabeth is right, having her family safe at home is best to keep her alive," Ardeth soothed.

Rick frowned. "Wait a minute. You know about all this?"

Ardeth Bay nodded. "All the Medjai know of the holy female warrior of God. We all honor and revere her. Were she to be one of our own it would be a great source of pride for the family. She would be greatly respected."

"That's real nice, but this is _my_ daughter we're talking about and I am not too thrilled with this job of hers," Rick spat.

"It doesn't really matter if you like it or not, it's destiny. I have to do it," Elizabeth said quietly.

Rick closed his eyes and said softly, "I know, I just...."

Elizabeth gripped her father's hands and looked him in his bright-blue eyes that were a couple shades lighter than her own. Eyes that also belonged to her brother. "I know, Dad. I'll be careful. I don't plan on dying anytime soon."


	6. A Life Once Lived

Greetings all! Thanks a lot to my reviewers! You guys kick ass!

**Faerie of Egypt: **Glad everything worked out all right. I've read through some of your stories when I got the time. I've been real busy with school and had to wait until the weekend to get this chappie in. Very entertaining they are. Good work.

**Wintersong: **Hehe. You'll have to wait to see who shall suffer the wrath of the Slayer.

**immortalwizardpirateelf-fan: **Very perceptive you are. God why do I always end up talking like Yoda? But nice catch there in the chapter before.

**lilylynn: **Why thank you.

Also thanks to **Dirbatua **for reviewing.

**Chapter Six Title: **A Life Once Lived

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Alex could not believe people could travel in such conditions. It was absolutely horrific in the train, with the heat and the dirty walls, and the flies buzzing about and the company was not too great either. Out of boredom he decided to do what all eight-year-old boys are experts at doing: annoying people.

"Are we there yet?" he asked Lock-Nah, his permanent jailor it seemed.

"No," Lock-Nah growled irritably.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

Instead of answering this time Lock-Nah lunged forward and slammed his knife down on the sill. The blade was stuck right between Alex's fingers. The boy's heart nearly stopped for a moment.

Suppressing a whimper he said, "Cor, that was amazing! Incredible aim."

Lock-Nah withdrew his knife and sneered at the boy. "What are you talking about? I missed."

Alex's sky blue eyes widened considerably.

Lock-Nah settled back down in his seat across from Alex and began to drum his fingers on the table. Alex repeated the drumming and when Lock-Nah did it again Alex followed, instigating a whole other round of irritation.

Lock-Nah lunged at Alex again and the boy reeled back while quickly saying, "I have to go to the bathroom!"

Lock-Nah growled and dragged Alex to the small, squalid bathroom with stuff all over the walls he didn't even want to fathom its nature. The boy glanced into the toilet and a frown of disgust formed on his face.

"God! Doesn't anyone here know how to flush?"

Lock-Nah waited at the door. Alex folded his arms. "I can't go when someone's watching."

The man rolled his eyes, but turned around.

"I don't trust you, you'll look!" Alex cried.

Lock-Nah huffed indignantly and slammed the door shut, leaving Alex to do his business which really had nothing to do with emptying his bladder. He flushed the toilet and watched the mess swirl down onto the tracks below noting that the bottom of the toilet opened right up onto the train track. Excellent. Ignoring his initial revulsion at the state of the bathroom, he grabbed the toilet and heaved it aside to expose the hole. It was big enough for him to fit through. He yanked a chain in the bathroom causing the train to slow down and eventually stop before jumping through the hole.

A few cars away from where Alex was making his escape Imhotep—newly reanimated into full human guise after sucking the lives out of Red Lasher, Spivey, and Jacques—and Meela were sharing a passionate moment. When the train suddenly stopped they were both startled before Imhotep mumbled in ancient Egyptian, "The boy."

He slid his compartment door open to see the temple of Karnak standing before him and the O'Connell boy running towards it full speed while red-turbaned men on top of the cars shot at him. Imhotep, furious that his orders in the boy not being harmed were being disobeyed used his telekinetic powers to run the men headfirst into the stone columns of Karnak. The boy wouldn't get far.

Alex had hit the sand running and never stopped as bullets whizzed by his head and shouts for him to stop were heard. He made it all the way into the interior of the temple of Karnak before the bracelet lifted his wrist up and released another vision. He saw Karnak as it had looked thousands of years ago, newly built, before the vision moved forward to the Temple Island of Philae circa 2000 B.C.

Striding through the vision was a bronze-skinned, handsome Egyptian man that Alex knew instinctively was Imhotep as he had looked as a mortal. The high priest lifted a hand up and Alex was lifted from the ground by invisible hands as Imhotep stared into Alex's face with disapproving black eyes.

The mummy wagged his finger in admonishment and clucking his tongue in a truly modern fashion. Alex found himself wishing suddenly that he had used that toilet.

-------------------

Dusk was quickly approaching as Ardeth Bay, Rick O'Connell, and Elizabeth sat near the bow of Izzy's dirigible cleaning and loading a small armory.

"If a man does not embrace his past, he can have no future," Ardeth Bay intoned.

Rick rolled his eyes. "Even if I am this holy warrior, Masonic Templar guy you keep talking about, what good is that going to do us now?"

Ardeth seemed to think the answer was obvious. "It is the missing piece of your heart. If you accept it, if you embrace it, you can do anything."

"How come when I finally accepted my destiny as the Vampire Slayer I _still_ couldn't get through my first lesson of piano?" Elizabeth queried wryly.

"Yes, cuz knowing how to play the Fifth is going to save your ass in a fight," Rick drawled sarcastically. He snapped his butterfly knife shut and clipped it on to his belt. "Now, about our old buddy Imhotep: What problems can we expect from him?"

Ardeth Bay sighed. "His powers are returning quickly. By the time he reaches Ahm Shere even the Scorpion King won't be able to kill him."

"What about a slayer?" Elizabeth asked quietly.

Ardeth Bay contemplated. "Perhaps, perhaps not. It is hard to tell. I would imagine that not even a mighty warrior as strong as the Slayer could defeat him."

"Damn," Elizabeth cursed. _Well, at least I'll leave a pretty corpse_, she thought to herself knowing it would be particularly daft of her to mutter that aloud.

"So, this Scorpion King guy's pretty tough, huh?" Rick asked lamely.

Evelyn joined their conversation. "According to legend, after he lost his soul, he betrayed Anubis and was cursed for all eternity."

"Thus rendering him more powerful," Elizabeth added ironically.

"Yeah, it seems to me that cursing them always makes them stronger," Jonathan agreed.

"What _is_ up with that? Why not just kill the bastards out right?" Rick said.

"I find physical torture followed by an extremely painful death gets the message through perfectly," Elizabeth interjected casually.

Evelyn informed them anxiously, "The Scorpion King's curse was so horrible that it has never been described."

Everyone exchanged worried looks. Elizabeth sighed in resignation and put on a large crucifix even knowing that it would do no good, but finding comfort in its weight nonetheless. Everyone went back to their work, while Evelyn went to stare off into the horizon lost in her thoughts. As she stood alone at the front of the blimp, her ears picked up a strange chanting sound and she began to drift off into memories from long ago that were not her own and yet were at the same time.

--------------------

Sitting before a sacred pool were Imhotep and Meela. The black Book of the Dead lay open before Imhotep and he was saying to Meela, "It is time to remind you of who you are, of who we are together."

He waved his hand over the pool and both Evelyn and Meela were sent hurdling back to their former lives as the two Egyptian princesses engaged in combat before the Pharaoh, Imhotep, and others.

The two stood facing each other wearing golden masks with their sais poised in a defensive stance before both turned away from each other simultaneously. At the signal for the fight to begin the princesses attacked. With a skill not even matched by the Egyptian soldiery the two young women traded blows. They parried, feinted, and lunged trying to keep the other from gaining the offensive. One princess tripped the other and she fell heavily to the floor.

Imhotep stood beside the Pharaoh watching the mock battle eagerly. The princess that had fallen to the floor pulled her mask away to reveal a face that was the startling replica of Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell's. In Izzy's blimp, still caught up in the trance, Evelyn's eyes widened in disbelief. The other woman removed her mask as well and said in the language of the time, "Put your mask back on. We wouldn't want to scar that pretty face."

It was the face of Meela, only this time Meela was Anck-Sunamun, the mistress of the Pharaoh.

Anck-Sunamun's words seemed harmlessly bantering enough, but the woman on the floor knew that there existed a tense rivalry that was ever more losing ground to pure loathing between the two. Anck-Sunamun would love nothing more than to scar that pretty face. With a surge of determination the princess on the floor kick-flipped back to her feet and twirled her sais around, preparing to battle with her opponent once again. She lunged at Anck-Sunamun who brought her sais up to deflect the other's blows and batted the sais one after the other out of her opponent's hands. The woman glared at her before cart wheeling out of her grasp and grabbing a battle axe on the other end of the arena. Anck-Sunamun flung her two weapons away and grabbed a spear.

The two princesses circled each other grasping their new weapons before lunging again. Blow after blow was executed by both young women before Anck-Sunamun flung the other's axe out of her hands and threw her to the ground, pointing her spear at her neck, a lunge away from ending the woman's life. How Anck-Sunamun longed to make that lunge, but she simply smiled and said, "You've improved, Nefertiri. I'll have to watch my back."

Nefertiri, breathing heavily and longing to turn that spear on the woman standing over her to shove it into her ribs, replied, "Yes, and I'll watch mine."

"Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!" the Pharaoh praised jubilantly as he approached the two women.

Anck-Sunamun backed away and held out her hand to help Nefertiri to her feet. The princess on the floor yet again did not accept and rose on her own. Both the women stood tensely before the other, each feeling her own intense desire to kill the other.

"Who better to protect the Bracelet of Anubis than my lovely daughter, Nefertiri?" the Pharaoh decreed as a servant took the chest with the bracelet inside away. The Pharaoh draped an arm over his daughter's shoulder and looked to Anck-Sunamun.

"And who better to protect me than my future wife, Anck-Sunamun?" A bout of applause followed and Anck-Sunamun bowed submissively to the Pharaoh.

Pharaoh embraced his daughter and whispered affectionately, "Well done, daughter."

Over her father's shoulder Nefertiri saw Imhotep, her father's high priest, saunter past Anck-Sunamun. For a brief second her future step-mother and the high priest stared into one another's eyes causing Nefertiri to frown in suspicion.

It was night, and Nefertiri had wandered onto a balcony of the palace breathing in the night air. Across the courtyard she saw Imhotep and Anck-Sunamun in her father's private chambers. What was going on? Imhotep embraced Anck-Sunamun and they began to kiss passionately. Nefertiri glowered and clenched her fists in anger at the betrayal she was witnessing, but at least she could finally be rid of that vile, treacherous woman and that arrogant high priest now that the cat was out of the bag. Her pulse quickened in fear when her father entered the room. Imhotep and Anck-Sunamun had heard his coming and the high priest had gone to hide. As Pharaoh stood in front of Anck-Sunamun and glared at her accusingly Imhotep came about and attacked him.

"Medjai!" Nefertiri cried. The bodyguards looked up from down below to see what was distressing their master's daughter. "My father needs you!" The princess pointed to the Pharaoh's private chambers and the men ran towards them.

Every stab she witnessed caused the young woman to whimper in despair. She cried out "No!" and lunged forward.

Four thousand years later, having witnessed the same tragedy, Evelyn cried out "No!" and fell over the railing of Izzy's blimp.

Elizabeth's quick reflexes enabled her to reach her mother in time before the woman tumbled down the long drop to the ground. Yet she unfortunately had to jump overboard to catch her. Rick, Ardeth Bay, and Jonathan leaped to the two ladies' aid and Rick grabbed onto his daughter's boot who held onto her mother's with one hand.

"Going somewhere, you two?" Rick asked sardonically.

--------------------

At Karnak, Meela was still in a trance.

Anck-Sunamun and Imhotep stood over the Pharaoh's dead body when they heard the Pharaoh's bodyguards clambering about outside the room. Imhotep's priests surrounded them trying to take him away.

"Go! Save yourself!" Anck-Sunamun cried.

"No! I will not leave you!" Imhotep protested. "Get away from me!" he ordered his priests.

"Only you can resurrect me!" Anck-Sunamun exclaimed, the bodyguards were inside the room now.

The priests managed to drag Imhotep out of there before the Medjai came in and saw their master's dead body and his mistress standing over him grasping a bloody sword. She sneered at them all and declared, "My body is no longer his temple!" With that said, she stabbed herself.

Four thousand years into the future Meela stabbed herself with an imagined sword and kneeled prostrate beside Imhotep as he chanted from the Book of the Dead. From the underworld came Anck-Sunamun's soul and it infused into Meela's flesh. With a gasp the woman opened her eyes and looked around in confusion. When she saw Imhotep she blinked back tears of joy. She was Meela no more, but Anck-Sunamun resurrected.

"Imhotep?"

"Anck-Sunamun."

--------------------

After pulling mother and daughter to safety, Evelyn, after a strong drink—which Elizabeth was refused much to her disappointment even after she kept attesting to the fact that with her superior stamina she could hold liquor better than any of them—explained about what she had seen.

"Evy, I know you haven't exactly been yourself lately what with all these dreams and visons—" Rick began.

Evelyn cut him off. "No, they're memories from my previous life. Honestly, I'm not losing my mind. It all makes perfect sense now."

"So, that's why we found the bracelet?" Elizabeth inquired.

"Exactly, I was its protector," Evelyn confirmed.

"And that's why my middle name is Nefertiri?" Elizabeth asked, wanting to know why her mother had come up with that since forever.

"I suppose it is. I remember when you were born and I needed to give you a middle name and that name just came to me," Evelyn mused, glad that that mystery was finally solved.

"Thank God I was the one to give her her first name," Rick muttered.

Evelyn rolled her eyes. Rick had been the one to name Elizabeth because she had guessed that their firstborn would be a son and Rick obviously had to take the opposite stand being her husband and all. So the two had made a deal. If the firstborn were a boy, Evelyn got to give the first name and if the firstborn were a girl, Rick got to name her. Much to Evelyn's relief he had given their daughter a respectable name after an admirable woman, the famous Queen Elizabeth of England. Evelyn had decided to name their son, Alexander, after Alexander the Great of Macedonia for Rick's sake.

"Now do you believe, my friend?" Ardeth Bay asked Rick. "Clearly you were destined to protect this woman."

"Yeah, Evy's a reincarnated princess and I'm a warrior for God," Rick replied dryly.

"And your son leads the way to Ahm Shere and your daughter is the Chosen One, a warrior for God as well. Think of the convenience of having the Slayer for a daughter when such a perilous journey lies ahead of you. You, your wife, and your son make up the three sides of the pyramid while Elizabeth guards you all," the desert warrior explained. "This was all preordained thousand of years ago."

"How does the story end?" Evelyn asked.

Ardeth shook his head. "Only the journey is written, not the destination."

Elizabeth snorted. "Isn't that just bloody convenient?"

"How else do you explain Evy's visions or that it is _your_ son whom wears the Bracelet of Anubis? How else do you explain that it was _your_ daughter who was Chosen out of all the girls in her generation for the vocation of Vampire Slayer? How else do you explain Evy's new fighting skills or your mark?" Ardeth asked.

Rick shrugged. "Coincidence."

Ardeth Bay smiled. "My friend, there is a fine line between coincidence and fate."

Elizabeth began to laugh. When everyone stared at her as if she had suddenly grown another head she said, "He sounds like my watcher."


	7. Bread Crumbs

This is a pretty short chapter. Sorry about that. But I figured I should go ahead and get in while I finish up with the rest of the story.

**Faerie of Egypt: **A romance between Ardeth and Elizabeth? Sorry, he's old enough to be her father. No smoochies in this fic for Elizabeth, but that's not out of the picture for the future. I am contemplating writing more little stories incorporating the O'Connell family and the world of the Slayer. What do you think?

**immortalwizardpirateelf-fan: **Nah, I won't have Elizabeth fight Anck-Sunamun because it would be far too easy though I'm sure she'll want to do some rather violent things to her. But Elizabeth is too powerful for the likes of Anck-Sunuman and there would be nothing left for Evy to fight. I have other things in store for this lil' slayer. But you may be on to something on the race against the sun.

**Saxifrage: **Duly noted, but I was way ahead of you there. You didn't think I would write a story with a slayer in it without some baddies from the slayer-universe? Not vampires, but there sure will be demons. And any original characters I make are not off limits to anything, in fact I'm more prone to kill off my own characters than the canon characters. But I kind of wanted to expand on the O'Connell slayer so the chances of her dying in this fic are slim to none. Thanks for the extra loofas lol.

Thanks also to **Lilylynn** for reviewing.

**Chapter Seven Title: **Bread Crumbs

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The stupid chain on Alex's ankle was extremely chafing as he walked round and round in a circle out of boredom in the interior of the temple of Karnak. Since his last escape attempt everyone seemed to wise up and now he was chained to a stake driven into the rocky floor of the temple. Perfect.

Lock-Nah came storming towards the boy in a frenzy of fury and humiliation. Alex gasped and lifted up the wrist with the bracelet saying, "Hold it, partner."

Lock-Nah growled to the boy, "When the time comes, I shall truly enjoy killing you."

Alex smiled defiantly and patted the man. "But until then, you had better be nice to me. Now, where's my water?" With a pang he thought of how proud his sister would be of his impertinence.

The tall, dark-skinned man almost went from dark brown in color to purple as anger and indignation flew through his veins. He shoved the cup of water into Alex's waiting hands and prepared to stalk off when the boy joked, "What, no ice?"

Snarling he left the room in a huff leaving Alex alone and formulating a plan. He drank a bit of the water letting it soothe his parched lips and throat and even rubbed some on his face and golden blonde hair. He then kneeled to the sandy floor and poured the water onto the floor. He began to mold the sand into some very distinct shapes.

-------------------

Their bodies tense and their voices quieted, Ardeth Bay, Rick, and Elizabeth crept to the train cars standing at the end of the tracks. Elizabeth could sense no life here save their own, but she didn't want to believe it. She didn't want to believe that they had missed their chance at rescuing her brother.

They jumped onto the train and burst into the parlor car only to find it abandoned. Elizabeth's heart sank as what she already had known became grim reality. They had missed them and they didn't know where to go next.

"They've gone! We missed them," Ardeth Bay spat in disgust.

Meanwhile, Evelyn strolled through the Karnak temple looking desperately for any sign of her son. She saw the telltale signs of brief habitation from overturned cups, food, tent pitches, and fire pits. Her dark blue eyes caught on something very familiar. She raced towards the object recognizing it as her son's little tie lying beside a pile of sand—no that wasn't a pile of sand.

"Rick! Lizzie!" she called out in excitement.

Rick, Elizabeth, and Ardeth Bay came racing in to see what the problem was. They stopped short at what they saw on the ground.

"Alex left us his tie. And," she dusted some sand off the "sand castle", "he built us a sand castle. It's the Temple Island of Philae. They've gone to Philae!"

"Wow. Good going, Alex," Elizabeth murmured, feeling an elating sense of hope emerge once more out of the gloomy despair that withheld it. Hope was born again on a simple thing like a sand castle.

"Atta boy, Alex! Let's go!" Rick exclaimed joyfully.

Ardeth Bay relayed the message to his brethren using Horus that they were to go to the Temple Island of Philae.

When the rescue party reached Philae, Imhotep and his followers had already left, but Alex again left a bread crumb behind. His jacket lay over top a sand castle in the shape of the temple at Abu Simbel.

"The great temple at Abu Simbel!" Evelyn informed them eagerly.

Again, Ardeth Bay sent Horus off with the vital information to the Medjai army awaiting their instructions. Yet, someone was noticing a falcon flying back and forth across the sky. Riding through the desert atop a camel Lock-Nah frowned at the bird. Something was not right.

--------------------

Izzy's blimp winded around the canyons as they followed the trail of the Nile. It had been six days since Alex had put on the bracelet. Tomorrow, the Scorpion King would arise. They did not yet know of the peril that faced Alex if he should not reach the golden pyramid by dawn tomorrow.

"This far up the Nile we're out of Egypt by now, aren't we?" Elizabeth asked, distressed at the thought.

Her mother put a reassuring arm on her shoulder. "Don't worry, dear. In ancient times this was all still apart of the Upper Kingdom."

Elizabeth's worries were slightly alleviated at that, but something still bothered her. How was Alex supposed to leave them a sign in this maze of rock?

"How can we see any sign Alex makes us here? What if he can't make a sign?" Elizabeth asked her parents.

Rick frowned, but put a brave face on the matter. "Don't worry girls. Alex is a smart kid, he'll leave us another sign somehow."

--------------------

Alex was indeed making another sign to lead his family to him, but a large foot stomped on his work. Lock-Nah snarled in anger and lifted Alex in the air, shaking him.

"Leaving bread crumbs, are we?!"

"Lock-Nah, put the boy down," Imhotep called from his place in the river.

The water was up to his waist and Alex was beginning to sweat. What was he planning? Lock-Nah reluctantly lowered the boy and kept his eyes trained in wonder on his lord.

Imhotep looked at Alex and sneered, "I hope your family enjoyed their journey."

The mummy raised his arms and made a bellowing sound as a giant wall of water rose up and crashed through the canyon.

--------------------

Elizabeth wrinkled her brow when she heard a rumbling sound and walked to where Izzy was steering the blimp. The sound was coming from behind them. She stood at the stern of the ship listening carefully. What she heard was the sound of crashing waves like those one would hear at the cliffs of Dover, but that sound didn't belong here in the desert. She tightened her hold on the railing of the ship as her senses went off in alarm. Memories of being trapped in rising water in the catacombs of the temple where they had found the Bracelet of Anubis surfaced.

"Oh no. Oh god no," she murmured, racing to the bow of the ship. "Something's coming. Something real big!"

It was then that Izzy too heard the rumbling sound of water and his eyes widened in fear. Everyone turned to see a massive wall of water coming through the canyon towards them.

"Oh, for the love of Pete!" Izzy cried.

"Izzy! Go right! Starboard! Starboard!" Rick yelled, holding onto his wife and daughter.

Izzy obeyed and the ship shot off towards the right while a face formed in the water. Rick grimaced as he remembered the last time Imhotep pulled off a trick like that. Jonathan and Ardeth Bay remembered it as well.

"Horus, fly!" Ardeth Bay cried. The falcon shot through the canyon and out of harm's way.

Izzy pulled a lever causing booster rockets to ignite and propelling the blimp at an incredible speed forward into the canyon. The wall of water did not follow.

Everyone regained their bearings after having been juggled around on the ship. When they heard the wall of water recede into another canyon everyone breathed collective sighs of relief.

"Uh...people?" Jonathan spoke up at seeing what lie before them.

Everyone turned and gasps of awe sounded. They had entered a ravine where the canyon had dipped down and was filled with a jungle. A big jungle. It was an oasis—a speck of life in the middle of a near-barren desert. It was Ahm Shere.

"Ahm Shere," Ardeth Bay murmured in disbelief.

Rick pulled out a telescope and peered out at the oasis. He saw the golden pyramid with a diamond winking in the sun on top of it. "Right."

Elizabeth, still breathing heavily, walked slowly to the bow while staring at their final destination. It was here that the final showdown would take place. It was here that she along with her family would face Imhotep and the Scorpion King. More importantly, it was where they would get Alex back. Her blood froze when she felt and heard the rumbling of the water again.

Seconds later everyone else felt it. "Oh no! He's back!" Izzy cried.

The wall of water with Imhotep's face came into view to swallow them. Izzy pulled another lever and the blimp shot forward over the edge of the oasis. "Hold on!"

Unfortunately, it was then that their luck ran out. A sputtering sound was made as the boosters died. The seconds that followed consisted of Rick pressing Evelyn and Elizabeth closer to him as they, Ardeth Bay, and Jonathan held onto the railing of the ship and Izzy saying, "Well, that's not good."

Then thousands of tons of water engulfed them and sent the blimp careening to the ground of the oasis.

--------------------

Alex bit back the tears that wanted to fall as Imhotep walked out of the now drained area of river. He sniffled and whispered, "Mum? Dad? Lizzie?"

Imhotep walked past the boy and ruffled his hair. Alex slapped his hand away angrily feeling sorrow and despair engulf him. The eight-year-old had never felt so alone in his life.


	8. Seeing Red

Damn hurricanes are starting to piss me off. Does anyone else think that God is pissed off or something? What is it Jeanne and Carl now? They shoulda named those first two Bonnie and Clyde cuz that's what I kept calling them. Anyhow, the next chapter might take awhile in getting in cuz I've gotta work on my btvs/hp story _and_ balance my school work and whatnot. This chapter is dedicated to **Malli** who passed away recently. She was the author of "The Phoenix Child", a brilliant story, for those that know of her and it is such a shame for such a talented author to die. I don't know how it happened so if anyone wants to enlighten me, be my guest. I was in shock when I found out on someone else's fic. Thanks a lot to my reviewers.

**Faerie of Egypt: **Well, she could have a crush on him, but beyond that is a no no. I see Ardeth more as a mentor figure or sort of like Elizabeth's own personal Giles. What will exist between them is a mutual respect of fellow warriors. Yeah, I loved Ardeth too. He rocks my world. Jonathan is also a favorite of mine because he is hilarious.

Thanks also to **Saxifrage**, **lilylynn**, and **the-almight-berry**.

**Chapter Eight Title: **Seeing Red

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Soaked to the bone and rather battered, the rescue party emerged from the wreckage alive and mostly in one piece. That was more than could be said for Izzy's dirigible. Elizabeth, unsurprisingly, had come out the least battered of all. She was still a little dizzy as she staggered out of the wreckage and stumbled about looking for her weapons.

Izzy was assessing the damage as everyone else rummaged through the wreckage to salvage weapons and provisions.

Rick spouted at orders as they worked. "All right, first we're going to get my son, then we're gonna want to make a quick getaway, so make it work Izzy."

Izzy was sputtering in disbelief. "What?! Look at this, O'Connell! The bloody thing is filled with _gas_, not hot air. Where the hell am I going to find the gas around here to get this thing off the ground?" He looked around and sighed. "Even if I could fill it up with hot air, do you know how many cubic meters of hot air I would need?"

Rick hoisted a pack onto his back and clapped Izzy on the back heartily. "If anyone can fill this thing up with hot air, Izzy, it's you."

Elizabeth hoped her father's confidence was well-placed because if it wasn't then this trip would basically be for naught. They would be stranded in this forsaken oasis with the Scorpion King and Imhotep. She didn't even want to think about the minions at the two lords' disposal. She didn't have the heart to tell her parents that even after they found Alex she couldn't leave. Like Ardeth Bay, she had a job to do and that was to vanquish evil.

Walking towards Izzy's pack while warily eyeing everyone else, Jonathan snatched his gold scepter out of there and hid it in his jacket. "Come to Daddy."

Ardeth held out his arm for Horus to perch and attached a message to his brethren to the falcon's legs. The bird launched into the sky and the five rescuers began their trek through the jungle.

The sound of a gunshot and resulting screech caused everyone to halt in their tracks and look upwards.

"Horus!" Ardeth Bay screamed in anguish for his friend.

"Oh no, they shot the bird," Elizabeth murmured. She had become rather fond of that handsome falcon.

Ardeth walked up to Rick and said, "I must go. I must let the commanders know where we are. If the Army of Anubis arises—"

"Wait! I need you! We need you to help us find my son," Rick pleaded.

Ardeth looked from Rick to Evelyn and Elizabeth who were pleading with him silently with their identical eyes. The desert warrior relented and nodded. "Then first, I shall help you."

"Thank you," Rick said gratefully.

--------------------

The Oasis of Ahm Shere was eerily silent. No nocturnal sounds graced the night. A jungle like this should teem with life. There should be sounds of night birds, creatures on the ground, in the trees. Yet there was nothing. And it unnerved the mortals of Imhotep's group.

Alex was sweating partly from fear and partly from the sultry jungle air that pressed down upon the small eight-year-old mercilessly. He was being dragged through the jungle by his captors as they marched to the gold temple. Alex prayed they would reach it in time because in a few hours by his calculations the sun would rise and if he was not in that gold temple by then, he would die.

Yet, it seemed inevitable that he would die anyway. His captors would most likely kill him afterwards and if his family was dead what did Alex have to go back to? No one was coming to rescue him. Imhotep had killed them all. Nevertheless, he couldn't succumb to the despair of his family's demise. A small part of him held onto a belief that they had survived and were coming for him. He saw in his mind's eye his sister: brave, beautiful, and deadly smiting all of his oppressors with her bare hands and carrying him away. He saw his father: strong, tough, and courageous wielding his twin revolvers. He smiled when he saw his mother: fearless, unwavering, and determined wielding that Roman sword like she was born to do it. It was odd how his mother and older sister suddenly seemed to develop extraordinary fighting skills. Alex had only started to train with his father, but he doubted he would ever reach their levels.

Thoughts of his family kept the eight-year-old above the abyss of misery as he trudged on. Red-turbaned men surrounded him on all sides. Red. He was always seeing red. They came upon a clearing where skeletons clad in armor and some grasping shields were hung from nets. Alex felt a pit drop down into his stomach.

"Roman legionnaires," the Curator informed them.

He then pointed to other skeletons wreathed in half-rotted blue uniforms. "And there, turn-of-the-century French. Napoleon's troops."

Several skeletons were hung from fire pits showing that they had been barbecued alive. Alex wanted to get out of this place. Now. Unfortunately, with guards every which way and death looming in the other direction he didn't have much choice in the matter.

Up ahead of Alex walking beside the Curator Lock-Nah grimaced in disgust at the carnage around him. "What in the name of Anubis did this?" He withdrew his scimitar.

Imhotep was the lone unperturbed member of the party.

--------------------

Rick had resigned himself to following Elizabeth since her senses were superior to his own and not to mention she had a nifty sixth sense. She stopped the group at a small rise and held up her hands. She figured the rise would offer a clear line of sight to the pyramid and a good view below. Everyone else seemed to agree.

On the rise everyone did his or her part in preparation for the upcoming skirmish. Evelyn and Rick loaded and stacked rifles while Ardeth Bay and Elizabeth inspected their less technically suave, but no less deadly array of weapons. Elizabeth let them all pick from the contents of her three black bags.

"You hear that?" Rick asked his daughter and Ardeth Bay. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

Elizabeth wrinkled her nose. "This place reeks of death. No birds. No animals at all. It's making my slayer sense go off its rocker."

Apparently that wasn't the only thing making her slayer sense go off its rocker. Elizabeth paused in her task of sorting through her weapons as a prickling sensation started at the back of her neck and spread throughout all her limbs. Her dark blue eyes widened in recognition and fear. A sinking sensation was added to the prickling sensation and she subconsciously gripped the sword in her hand tighter. She was experiencing the same feeling, the same warning, that she did whenever she did battle with demons. _No. Not now. Please not now. _Alas, the instincts of a slayer are rarely mistaken and unfortunately, it was not one of those times where it would be an exception.

Rick spared a glance at his daughter as he loaded his shotgun and frowned when he noticed the sudden alertness to her entire body. The muscles of her arm were taut and riddled with tension and the look on her face was very discouraging. "Lizzie? What's wrong?"

Before answering, the Slayer rose to her feet while sweeping the entire area with a sharp eye. She turned back to her perplexed family and Ardeth Bay. "Stay here."

Rick jumped to his feet and declared indignantly. "Hold up! What the hell is going on?"

"Lizzie, where are you going?" Evelyn asked anxiously.

Elizabeth turned her troubled gaze back to her parents and said quietly, "Demons. They're in the jungle."

"How do you know?" Jonathan asked, fervently hoping his niece was wrong.

Elizabeth closed her eyes and murmured, "I can feel them. They're close but I don't know how many there are." She sighed and slung a crossbow onto her shoulder and picked up a quiver of bolts to hang there as well. "I have to scout about to find them and figure the risk they pose. If I'm not back in time, go ahead to get Alex without me, but be wary. Some of these buggers will do worse things to you than soldier-mummies if they get hold of you. If there aren't too many for me to take out, then I'll go ahead and...take them out. If not, I'll try to lead them away from here; away from you lot."

Ardeth Bay nodded to her in approval. "That is a good plan."

"Good plan? No way you're doing that. You're in a place you know nothing about, Lizzie. You can't play cat and mouse here!" Rick protested.

Elizabeth looked anxiously behind her. "You have a better one? None of you can certainly go after the demons _and_ it's _my_ job. Listen, I don't have time to come up with a better one, but you need to get to Alex and stop Imhotep from killing the Scorpion King. I'll meet you at the pyramid if I'm not back before then." She stopped for a moment in contemplation and grabbed one of the loaded rifles. Though slayers normally did not use guns since those weapons wouldn't kill vampires, Elizabeth was also her father's daughter. And it was better to use than a crossbow, which would take more time to reload.

Rick and Evelyn stood there speechless both trying to come up with reasons for their daughter to stay, but not being able to voice any others besides the fact that they feared greatly for her safety. They could only watch solemnly as Elizabeth gave them an encouraging smile and flew off into the night without saying goodbye. Perhaps it was best she did not say goodbye, for then it would have scared Rick and Evelyn more.

--------------------

With a grace and agility only a slayer could boast Elizabeth navigated through the towering trees and swooping vines. Her tread upon the ground could barely be heard. She had switched into slayer mode, the mode for searching and destroying. As she got closer to the demons her alarm system sent more and more signals to her brain. She stopped right behind a particularly thick tree, sheathed her sword, and jumped upwards to grasp a branch and swung herself gymnast style onto another branch. From her vantage point, she cursed silently when she spotted a small entourage of six green-skinned creatures. They were stocky and short, and also had rather lean bodies with not much muscle mass that belied a small amount of strength with skulls that were peppered with small black horns.

The demons were conversing with one another in a demonic language that Elizabeth had never heard before. She never saw this particular breed of demon before, but there was a first time for everything. Their voices were guttural and low and while she could not understand the words the evocativeness of their expressions and their voices told her that they were not here on a vacation. Her instincts were telling her they were malevolent and that was all she needed before aiming her rifle and firing. The bullet smashed through the skull of one of the demons and sent it crashing to the ground while splattering its brethren with luminescent blue ichor, which Elizabeth could only assume was its blood.

Before the demons could react Elizabeth took out another one in the face. _Two down, four more to go. _The creatures let out ferocious howls of fury and began scattering about to find who had killed two of their own so quickly. Not wanting to lose them in the jungle she nailed another one in the chest before jumping down from her perch brandishing her sword. The remaining creatures snarled viciously and one growled, "Slayer!".

"Thank god, you do speak English," Elizabeth muttered as they rushed her. She ducked as the first one came barreling towards her and used its own momentum to fling it up and over her back and crashing into another demon.

One demon tackled her from behind and she grunted in pain as she collided with the ground. She rolled over and unsheathed a dagger on her hip and drove it into its side and then gave it a powerful upward kick that sent the demon flying. She kick flipped back to her feet and grabbed her sword to sink into the chest of one demon. Having taken her attention off the other two one creature was able to get an opening and dug one of its claws into Elizabeth's side. She screamed in pain and elbowed it in the face, which only sufficed to add on to her pain as its face was armored quite well. _Well, at least the bullets can get through._

She blocked a blow from the demon that she had stabbed in the side and still had its dagger sticking out of it and did a somersault under its swinging arm stabbing upwards with her sword. She rose to her feet and turned to face the last demon alive, her dark brown hair in disarray, her face covered in dirt, her side bleeding and her suit ripped. The demon's glowing violet eyes appraised her with undisguised contempt. The demon charged at the Slayer, and she quickly used that to her advantage. She sprang aside but grabbed its arm and threw it down to the ground while holding its arm behind its back in a very painful position. She pointed the tip of her sword right at the back of the creature's neck giving it fair warning.

"Since I'm on a rather tight schedule here, it would be wise not to tempt me and just go ahead and spill. Why are you here?" she spat.

The demon mumbled something that Elizabeth didn't quite understand so she responded by twisting its arm even harder. "You are aware that I possess the physical strength to rip your bloody arm right out of your socket? That won't be the first limb you lose if you keep secrets from me. And I'm not a squeamish girl when it comes to dismembering."

The demon began to laugh maniacally and Elizabeth didn't take that as a good sign. "Slayer, your world will go up in flames when my mistress takes control of the Scorpion King's army. It matters not what you do to me."

Elizabeth cursed over and over again in her mind and was hoping her mother didn't possess supernatural mind-reading powers because she would have been in an understatement of trouble had she uttered any of that aloud. She subconsciously made the mistake of releasing her grip on the demon as she grasped the implications of that admission. Now she not only had Imhotep to contend with, there was also some demonic yahoo that wanted to kill the Scorpion King and control his army. _Oh this is just lovely._

The demon, feeling the Slayer's strong grip lessen, wrestled out of it and swiped her away. It ran off into the thick jungle trees leaving an extremely pissed of slayer behind.

"Hey! Get back here so I can dismember you!" Elizabeth yelled indignantly as she stumbled off after it.

Fortunately for Elizabeth and unfortunately for the demon it was a rather slow runner. Slayers were built for speed and endurance, a sort of mixing of cheetah and antelope aspects, which enabled the girl warrior to catch up to the creature and jump on its back. Slayer and demon rolled down a steep incline locked in each other's arms, trying fruilessly as they rolled down the hill to gain a hold over the other.

--------------------

Imhotep's entourage was getting close to the gold pyramid. A break in the jungle allowed them a glimpse of the wonder with the diamond on its tip.

Lock-Nah whispered to the Curator, "Now may I kill him?"

The Curator said to Imhotep, "My lord, there is no longer any need for the boy."

Imhotep waved his hand dismissively. "Do with him as you please."

Lock-Nah grinned evilly and murmured, "With pleasure." He stalked over to Alex.

Alex saw the strange expression on Lock-Nah's face and paled. He knew now that he would never reach the gold pyramid for they would kill him before then.

"Cripes, I'm in trouble now."

Before Lock-Nah could reach Alex, however, a breeze fluttered through the jungle followed by an eerie whistling sound. The party was halted when Imhotep stopped.

The Curator whispered, "Something is coming."

And come something did, although it was far beyond what the Curator had expected. A strange green creature with black spikes on its head and a young woman, a mere girl really, came tumbling out of the jungle and right into their pathway. All the men backed away, startled and shocked. The girl didn't even register their presence as she elegantly flipped onto her feet and took hold of the monster's neck effectively twisting it until a loud crack could be heard. It fell limp to the ground and the girl breathed a sigh of relief, until she realized that there were others around her.

The Curator gasped when he saw the daughter of the O'Connells staring at him in surprise and anger. She was a true vision of deadly loveliness to the red-turbaned men with her studded leather armor and the sword she held in her hands that she had retrieved from the ground after breaking the creature's neck. Her dark brown hair was in disarray and her dark blue eyes glittered darkly with malice towards him and his men.

"Lizzie!" a small voice cried out.

"Alex!" the girl cried feeling almost overwhelmed by relief.

Lock-Nah wasted no time after figuring who she was. "Shoot her!" he ordered his men.

"Oh cripes." Elizabeth quickly dodged out of the way of the spray of bullets sent towards her. She spun and backhanded a man that was trying to gut her with his scimitar. She kept her eyes forever searching for the familiar golden head among the red, but she had lost sight of her little brother among the fray. Suddenly she felt her senses undulate in a way she had never felt, which never presaged anything good. Some new threat was out there and it was getting close. _Just what I need, some new beastie to battle. _

Her head whipped around as a man suddenly cried out and vanished as if the ground had swallowed him up. That sealed the deal, Elizabeth had to get Alex out of here now.

-------------------

Atop the rise brother and sister awaited the procession of Imhotep's group with tense anticipation. Evelyn stared stonily down below. Her blue eyes had hardened severely and were completely devoid of the warmth that they usually held. She would allow no mercy for those that had hurt her family. Her husband had already left with Ardeth Bay to rescue her son and her daughter had still not returned from finding those demons.

"Jonathan, that's my husband and my children down there," Evelyn told her brother flatly. "Make me proud."

Jonathan drew in a deep breath and tightened his grip on his rifle. Without looking at his younger sister he vowed softly, "Today will be that day, Evy."

--------------------

Without warning another threat assailed the followers of Imhotep in the form of two men, Rick O'Connell and Ardeth Bay. The two split up and cut through the red-turbaned men like a ram inadvertently helping Elizabeth gain an upper hand.

When Rick saw his daughter alive and literally kicking he sighed in relief, but didn't slow down his assault upon the men that had stolen his son from him.

While she battled her foes the Slayer kept her eyes pealed for a familiar blonde head and her ears pealed for the cries of her brother. She hoped against hope that he was still alive. Anything less was unacceptable.

A red-turbaned man swung his scimitar at her which she easily deflected with her sword. She didn't have time to get into full battle with the man so she instead kicked his weapon out of his hands, knocked him out with a single punch, and proceeded to use him as a human shield against the bullets being sent her way.

_Why do these arseholes always have to wear red? All I see is bloody red. As of now red is my least favorite color._ She quickly took up another human shield to block her other side as she darted through the jungle in search of Alex. Her mother and uncle were doing great rifle work from up above and as far as she could tell no one noticed them or if they had they were dead before they could do anything.

Her human shields were riddled with bullets, but she had yet to be hit. A fact that she was thoroughly relieved about, but she didn't want to push her luck. When she saw some remaining red turbans about to shoot her father she launched one of her lifeless shields and threw their aim off course causing them to shoot either into trees and shrubbery or at their own brethren.

The presence she had felt moments earlier was still there in its elusive form. She had not yet figured out what exactly it was and figured that the immediate threat was all the men with their stupid guns. Yet, when she saw a creepy looking, skeleton midget jump in her path all thoughts of said presence were brought back and answered as to what its origin was. With barely a second thought she threw her last shield at the pygmy thing with such force she could hear the thing's bones crush beneath the weight.

"Cripes! What the bloody hell was that thing?" she asked aloud.

"Dad! Somebody help me!" a voice cried out in terror. She recognized that voice. It was Alex.

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Alex wasn't exactly sure when, but somewhere between the man disappearing into the tall grass, his sister appearing out of nowhere in a tussle with a strange monster thing, and the gunshots he had gotten free of his captors and was completely forgotten for the moment. Or so he hoped. He knew which way the pyramid was instinctively, courtesy of the thing upon his wrist. When he saw his sister, it was like being doused in a downpour of joy and relief. He had been so afraid his entire family was gone, having been killed by Imhotep's hocus pocus bit. But it seemed at least Elizabeth had survived, and when he heard the gunshots he knew his father had come for him as well. His family had not perished after all thus giving Alex a new incentive to live.

If he had had time he would have dwelled on his sister's eye-popping entrance and amazing skills. It only strengthened Alex's theory that there was something slightly different about his sister that set her apart from other girls. If they got out of this fiasco alive, he would nag her to death about it until she told him.

Much to his chagrin, one man in particular had not forgotten him. Lock-Nah found him and began to advance on him again with the same cruel gleam in his eye and malicious smirk upon his dark face. With a squeak of alarm Alex began to run away from the man in a futile attempt to escape the blade of his scimitar coming down upon his neck and cleaving his head from his body. At least, that was one way he imagined his death by Lock-Nah's hand would be like. He had the feeling that his version was supremely less painful and a lot more merciful.

"Dad! Somebody help me!" he screamed, stumbling through tree roots and tall grass. "Dad! Lizzie!"

Alex seemed to be stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place. Whatever had gotten those men the first time could get him, Lock-Nah could finish him, or he could never reach the gold pyramid by dawn—which was quickly approaching—and he would die anyway. The full impact of his situation suddenly bore down onto the eight-year-old at the most inconvenient time. He wasn't ready to die. He was only eight! He still had loads more to accomplish! This wasn't fair!

By the time he realized he was pretty much stumbling backwards from Lock-Nah he had run up against a tree and Lock-Nah was getting closer. Even if Alex had run, the man—having the advantage of longer legs—would catch him.

--------------------

"Alex!" Rick cried when he heard his son's scream.

He saw Elizabeth thankfully unharmed from not far off yelling for the boy as well.

"Alex! Where are you?!" she screamed.

Another scream of terror pointed father and daughter in the right direction and they both barreled through the human barriers as if they were nothing but featherweights. Elizabeth hit a man so hard he was thrown into the air and smacked against a tree. She didn't stop to see if she had killed him because frankly, she really didn't give a bloody damn.

Her heart literally froze in her chest when she saw a dark-skinned man about to drive his scimitar into her brother's body. Wasting no time, the Slayer emitted a feral scream, leaped into the air and tackled the man to the ground while her father whisked Alex away to safety.

She rolled away from the struggling form and kick flipped back to her feet and unsheathed her sword. This man had dared to lay a finger upon the body of her eight-year-old brother? She appraised the dark-skinned—rather handsome the female part of her claimed, but that was beside the point—muscled warrior with cobalt eyes darkened with righteous ire. As far as she was concerned this bastard was no better than the blood-sucking, half-demon, undeads she was charged to slay. He grinned saucily and picked up his scimitar, but before he could lunge towards her Ardeth Bay knocked him into a tree.

"Ardeth!" Elizabeth yelled, wanting to kill this man on her own.

"Go Elizabeth. You must go to your family. Lock-Nah is mine," the desert warrior declared, gripping tightly in his hand his scimitar.

Elizabeth opened her mouth to protest, but she snapped it shut. Ardeth seemed to know this man and obviously there was a mutual loathing between them. She sighed and turned to leave with a barely perceptible nod of farewell to the man she regarded as a close friend despite knowing him for less than a week. He was an admirable warrior; strong, courageous, honorable, loyal, and dependable. He was a fellow comrade of light in the ever pitched battle against the darkness.

"Do not fear, Slayer. We shall meet again," he replied.

She smiled and took off into the jungle at top neck speed. She caught up to her father and brother having just halted in their escape in a clearing. Her father looked near to collapse from exhaustion, but otherwise all right. Alex also looked unharmed. That is, until she engulfed the boy in a near literal bone-breaking hug causing him to gasp for air.

"You little scoundrel! Do you have _any_ idea how much of a heart attack you gave everyone? I am going to bloody kill you when we get home!" she cried, a flood of tears fueled by relieved happiness streaming down her face.

She had never felt such a wellspring of emotion burst forth. All she could do right now was keep from kissing her brother's head all over. All the tension in her body seemed to dissipate upon contact with her brother. He was alive. He was safe. Elizabeth didn't seem to care how much he annoyed her. He could annoy her all he wanted now. Hell, she would insist he take her knickknacks without asking and make his bizarre contraptions with them.

Alex knew that the angry act his older sister was putting on was something she inherited from their mother. It was partly anger, but mostly false anger to cover up the tidal wave of relief. He for one felt relieved to be in her arms. He almost forgot about his time ticking away.

"Alex!"

Evelyn and Jonathan came to meet them in the clearing Alex was transferred from his sister's arms into his mother's. His mother wept into his hair and whispered his name over and over. After allowing a few moments of hugging he pulled away from his mother's hold.

"Come on! We have to get to the gold pyramid! I have to get this bracelet off now!" he exclaimed anxiously.

"Leave it on, Alex. It looks good on you.," Jonathan said, panting from exertion.

"No, you don't understand! The mummy said it would kill me if I don't reach the pyramid by sunrise! Today!" the boy urged.

"Oh my god," Evelyn whimpered.

"Son of a—" Elizabeth murmured. Despair flared up again. Why couldn't she have her cake and eat it too this time? Was that too much to ask?

Elizabeth hoisted Alex onto her back advising him to hold on tight, but not to strangle her. To Rick, Evelyn, and Jonathan she said, "Don't bother trying to keep up. Just meet us there. I'll have him in there before the sun rises, I swear it."

With his heart making deafening poundings Rick nodded. "Be careful. Be fast."

"Which way is it, Alex?" she asked.

"That way," Alex replied, pointing diagonal towards the right.

With that she took off at a speed that _was_ inhuman. To her family she was nothing but a blur running away from them as she slipped into full slayer mode and zipped through the jungle. She gave in completely to who and what she was. A hunter. A slayer. A mortal gifted with attributes others would sell their souls to Satan for. She intended to take full advantage of what she had been bestowed. The only thing on her mind was that she _had _to reach that pyramid before the sun rose and her senses were telling her the sun was minutes away from doing so. If she was too late....

Pygmy mummies blocked her pathway with harsh, shrill shrieks. She leaped over them while flipping Alex over to her front and clasping him close against her chest in case those creatures began to blow darts her way. The Slayer continued to sprint through the oasis desperately racing against the clock of nature. She ran for the sake of the life of the child she held in her arms. A life that if extinguished would leave irreparable stains on her conscience, heart and soul. This could not come to pass.

Alex watched the jungle fly by in the form of fuzzy, unfocused green as his sister ran towards the pyramid. He didn't know Elizabeth could run so fast. He didn't know anyone could run so fast. Anyone human, that was. Looking over her shoulder he gasped when he saw the top of the sun rising over the trees.

"Lizzie! The sun is rising!" he bellowed shrilly.

Elizabeth didn't bother looking, but from some inner wellspring of hidden strength fueled by desperate need increased her already maximized speed. The golden pyramid was in view...if only she could just...but she wouldn't reach it in time even with that burst of fear-induced adrenaline. Unless....

Like she had done many times before, Elizabeth more or less cheated. In this case, she cheated death and in this case it was her brother's. She sprang across the entire length of the golden ramp lined with gold statues of lions and dove into the pyramid at the exact same moment the rising sun shined its light on the pyramid causing the diamond on top to twinkle merrily in the golden rays.

With her eyes squeezed shut and her arms still wrapped painfully tight around her brother she heard the click of a bracelet being opened. She cracked open an eyelid and saw the boy grabbing the thing and hurling it away. She let out a laugh of relief and hugged the boy to her reveling in the up and down movement of his chest and the beating of his heart.

"You know, you really have to stop this...you'll scare me into an early grave. I swear," Elizabeth choked out.

Alex grinned a grin that was eerily identical to their father's. "That was the plan."

"Alex! Lizzie!" came their father's voice as he broke through the jungle and pounded up the ramp. He dropped to his knees when he saw that both his children were alive and well. He crawled over to them both.

Elizabeth smiled tiredly. She felt a strange euphoria engulf her and almost forgot about the battles to come. Almost. "Told you I'd get him here. I think I might have strained every muscle in my body doing it, but I suppose that's worth it."

Rick nodded, his throat too constricted with emotion to reply. He hugged his daughter and son tightly thanking God or whatever deity had protected them. Elizabeth nestled against her father's chest and felt like sleeping for a week or more. She had probably gotten an accumulated two and a half hours of sleep in the past five days. Slayers were built for sleep-deprived lives, but only to an extent. They had to at least get some rest to let their bodies recuperate. Elizabeth had nearly pushed herself to the limit of slayer endurance. She didn't intend to overstep her bounds.

She barely registered her mother and uncle emerging from the woods panting and staggering. Evelyn saw her husband and children alive in the pyramid and felt dizzy with relief. The tension that permeated her body dissipated the moment she saw her husband and children alive and embracing in the pyramid.

"They made it!" she cried ecstatically.

"Yeah," Jonathan murmured, his green-brown eyes trained on the gold pyramid in wonder and lust.

What happened next would give the O'Connell children nightmares for the rest of their lives. Too late did Elizabeth notice with her sixth sense the presence of Imhotep. Too late did she stagger to her feet and out the entrance of the pyramid to defend her mother and uncle. Too slow and weary to reach her uncle before Imhotep grabbed Jonathan by the throat and threw him out of the way. Too exhausted and unprepared to reach her mother before the harlot in the black dress(Elizabeth had never caught her name) drove a dagger into her stomach.

"Mum!" Her voice was a raspy howl.

She barely heard her father scream "No!" and dart past her as she gripped the side of the entrance. She felt frozen to the spot, unable to make her legs work, unable to run to her mother's side. She watched as if detached from her body and everything connected to it—the sand beneath her feet, the boy running ahead of her, the gold stone she gripped, the antagonists walking right past her, the woman swinging a black book to and fro—as her mother blinked once and then twice in disbelief and confusion before falling to her knees, her hands clasped against her abdomen with blood oozing between her fingers. _No. It's a mortal wound. There's so much blood. So much red. Why do I keep seeing red?_

_--------------------_

Gosh, cliffhangers are fun, aren't they? Tee-hee.


	9. Death is Thy Name

Well my friends, this is the next to last chapter of this story. In the future I plan on writing more Mummy fics with our little slayer here. Anyone interested on collaboration, ideas, and all that rot can contact me or put in the review. Thank you all very much for the support.

**Ivy Caddison**/**Faerie of Egypt: **At first I was really confused when I went back to the reviews and saw a different penname there. I thought I had gone a bit crazy or something, well more crazy than I already am. No, I didn't know the dude who played Ardeth was in Resident Evil 2. Now I have to watch that movie, he's such a hunk. I can see that you really love to write mummy stories lol. How many have you written? This is my first mummy story actually. About Elizabeth getting stabbed instead of Evelyn, I contemplated on that and then decided that I would put her through the agony of losing her mother. I'm evil that way. Plus, it's fun to see her get all vengeful and stuff.  
**the-almight-berry**: Sadly, it's true. Almost every author in the Btvsxover section has confirmed it. I sincerely wish it wasn't though.  
**immortalwizardpirateelf-fan**: I like your tenth walker fic, but I haven't been able to finish it. Most people turn away from those because of the Mary-Sue factor, but they're just too narrow-minded. They automatically lump female OCs into the Mary-Sue category simply because she can handle herself, they don't even stay on to read to see her faults and personality leak through. It pisses me off how mean people can be.  
**Saxifrage:** Hehe, guess you'll have to read and find out.  
Thanks also to** pappy**, and **lilylynn**.

**Chapter Nine Title: **Death is Thy Name

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Scarlet ribbons leaked down Evelyn's black blouse as she fell over onto her back and lie there in the sand. The pain was...excruciating...but oddly bearable. She didn't want to die. What an absurd notion. Evelyn had far too much to live for her husband and children being first and foremost of them. Yet, she knew right as she had collapsed to her knees that she was going to die. The woman had stabbed her right in the stomach and the dagger had gone in deep. Perhaps with efficient medical help she could be saved. But there were no doctors here in the Lost Oasis of Ahm Shere. There were no hospitals nearby. It was hopeless.

"Evy!"

Whose voice was that? Why did it sound so far away? Was it Rick's? It sounded like his. What had happened to her brother? Her senses began to dull as copious amounts of blood poured out of her and the pain became less so when she saw her husband's anxious, but handsome face.

"Jonathan!? Jonathan!?" Rick yelled, looking frantically for his brother-in-law. Jonathan stumbled into view and Rick told him to hold Alex back. _No,_ Evelyn thought. _I want my son with me and my daughter. Where is Elizabeth?_ Yet it was an effort just to keep her eyes open and continue breathing that she couldn't get those words out.

She heard Alex's small, worried voice over the din of her husband's. "She's going to be all right, isn't she Dad?"

Rick swallowed his despair and the sobs that were threatening to break forth. "She's going to be fine. She'll be fine." His answer was hasty and lacked conviction. Rick did not want to believe what his instinct was telling him, what his trained soldier's eyes were seeing. His wife was dying and they could not save her.

He pried away her hands to look at the wound and let out a choked half-whimper, half-sob. "Oh my god." His hands were shaking. He didn't know what to do. "Lizzie! We need the....the medical packs. Lizzie?!" He saw his daughter slowly walking towards them, her beautiful face bearing the most painfully calm expression he had ever seen.

Elizabeth felt like she was in a trance of some sort as she walked slowly towards her mother and father. Her detached state was still prevalent; acting as a sort of safeguard to what was happening, but it was quickly beginning to disintegrate as she drew closer to her dying mother. She didn't know how bad the wound was, but by her father's state she figured her assumption was correct. The wound was fatal. Her father was still talking in a panicked frenzy, desperately trying to keep her mother awake.

Evelyn's eyes flickered repeatedly. She was so tired that she just wanted to rest her eyes for a while. Rick was speaking to her, begging her to stay with him. Couldn't he see she was trying? It was so arduous when the darkness was so alluring. The sweet abandonment of oblivion was calling to her and beckoning to her; she had to obey its whim.

She was feeling quite cold too. If she had had the energy to laugh she would have chortled ironically at that moment, because how can one feel cold in the middle of the desert during the day? An icy numbness was spreading throughout her weary body. The pain from her stomach was beginning to dull even more.

"You're strong. You can beat this. Honey, please, you...have to stay with me...Alex and Lizzie...we need you. Oh god, Lizzie, what do I do?" Rick was losing his senses. He couldn't seem to think rationally. His anguished mind couldn't seem to think past the fact that his wife was in front of him bleeding to death. He called upon his daughter for help because throughout the trip she had displayed a stunning amount of inner and outer strength and he had subconsciously let her take the lead.

At her father's anguished voice Elizabeth snapped out of her emotionless trance and felt the cumbersome weight of grief, despair, panic, worry, and all those other emotions one never wants to feel individually let alone all at once cascade down upon her. Why was he asking her what to do? Did he think healing powers or natural doctoring skills came with the slayer package? Oh how she wished that were true right now, but she was just as helpless as her father. Elizabeth put one hand on the bloody hole in her mother's stomach as if she could somehow transfer her slayer healing powers magically. She grasped her mother's hand and the fifteen-year-old young woman inside of her shrank down to the little girl she used to be and occasionally wished to revert to.

"Mummy? I'm here. Don't go," she pleaded, while salty tears escaped from the rims of her eyes. Evelyn turned her head at her daughter's voice and gave a weak, pained smile. She looked into the younger replica of herself and tried to lift her hand to caress her lovely daughter's face. Elizabeth raised the hand to her cheek and closed her eyes at the touch.

Evelyn drew in a shaky breath. She didn't have much time left, she could feel the inevitable abyss of death drawing closer. She drew up the last vestiges of strength left to her and stuttered. "Take...care of...them."

"No, sweetheart. No," Rick cried, stroking her cheek. He had no idea if those words had been for him to take care of their children or for Elizabeth to take care of him and Alex, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered now except for the grievous fact that his love was going to leave him forever.

"I...love...you...all. Tell....Alex...I love...him." Evelyn struggled to get all the words out. She wanted to say so much more, but it was too late. Her last thought before succumbing to death was, _goodbye._

"Evy? Evy, come back! Evy!" Rick screamed as Evelyn's head lolled back and the lids of her eyes shut over the cobalt orbs. Shutting them out forever. _No!_

He began to sob uncontrollably and leaned down over his wife's body to lie upon her, while weeping onto her neck. The love of his life—the _only_ love of his life—was forever gone from him. He would never again awaken to her serene and lovely face. He would never again bicker gently with her over the importance of this artifact or that. He would never again hear the lessons Evelyn would give their son on the ancient Egyptian languages and writings. He would never hear again the laughter shared between Evelyn and their daughter over some amusing event that occurred while they had been out shopping. His Evy. His angel of redemption who had rescued him from the hangman's noose in Cairo was dead.

Upon the moment Elizabeth felt life exit from her mother's body she had withdrawn her hand and clapped both hands over her ears to shut out the world. She wanted to shut out the pain, the constant suffering, and the horrible sounds of her father's sobs. She had never in her entire life witnessed her father cry. Like most typical males he bore the brunt of misery with a dry eye in public. He sought to act out in anger and violence rather than tears and sniffles.

It was one of the things Elizabeth had rarely thought about, but had almost come to depend upon throughout her hectic life. One of the stable aspects of her life that she needed in such instability. Now everything was falling apart and Elizabeth was being caught in the volley of debris. Her mother, the most vivacious woman she had ever known, the most lively, intelligent, clumsy, fearless woman on earth, was dead. And her father was sobbing and moaning piteously over her body. It threw her whole world askew. It was unnerving, pitiful, heart-breaking, and far too surreal.

She had to get away. She couldn't stand by and watch her father cry. She couldn't look at her mother's prostrate and bloodied form lying on the sand. Elizabeth rose to her feet and stumbled back towards the pyramid in a whirlwind of grief and shock. She saw her uncle holding onto Alex who was rendering Jonathan's jacket soaked with tears while the man himself had tears of grief for his baby sister sliding down his face. This wasn't right. Everything felt wrong and backwards and the total lack of sense of it all made Elizabeth want to scream.

Elizabeth leaned against one of the golden lion statues and then the impact of her mother's death hit her. She let out a hoarse, grief-stricken scream and slid to the ground. She withdrew one of her daggers and began to stab the ground. It became an outlet for her miserable fury, her pain, and her misery. She had stopped stabbing when she felt a small hand on her shoulder. Alex's red, swollen eyes were looking at her in fear and pain and she rocked back on her heels.

Why had she allowed herself to lose control like that in front of her family? She was the Slayer. She had to be the strong one. But it was so hard....it was too hard. She needed someone to hold her for a change. She needed her mother, but her mother was gone.

She took the boy into her arms and sobbed into his shirt as he buried his face into her neck. Sister and brother sat there together and let loose the tears for their beloved mother who had been so viciously taken away from them.

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Rick hugged his son to him. He felt the vestiges of tears and grief inside him numbing as the cold fury began to take hold. He wanted to make the bitch that killed his wife cry and scream in agony, which for Rick O'Connell, who never struck a lady, was surprising. Yet, it was that damned mummy, Imhotep, that was truly responsible. He would be the prime choice to vent his misery and lust for revenge on and the fact that it might save the world in the process was merely a bonus.

Jonathan was sitting beside Evelyn's body looking lost and forlorn. Of all the people in this world his baby sister had been most precious to him. She had always been his better half, always been the favored one of his parents, but that was okay. She had that appeal to her that made Jonathan understand why a man like Rick O'Connell would fall in love with her. Jonathan had always envied her a little for her intelligence and fearless attitude, but his envy was dwarfed by his love, respect, admiration, and pride for her.

He felt like he had failed his little sister. He had failed to do the job every big brother was supposed to do. He had failed to protect her. He should have seen Imhotep coming. He should have come to Evelyn's defense instead of letting that vile creature wearing a beautiful woman's face stab her. Now Rick was a widower and Elizabeth and Alex were left without a mother. And Jonathan had no sister. _I hoped I made you proud, Evy. I know I was never a good brother to you in life, but maybe I can do better in your death. I'll clean up and take care of Elizabeth and Alex. I promise._

Elizabeth stood leaning against one of the golden lion columns lining the pathway to the pyramid. Several strands of her dark brown hair had come loose from the leather hair tie in her hair and were plastered to her face by the wetness of her tears. Her cobalt eyes were swollen and red from all the release of heartache and she felt so...diminished inside. Ever since her Calling she had taken comfort in the fact that her shortened lifespan would spare her from the anguish of having to bury one of her own. The possibility that one of her family would die before her always loomed just outside of the walls that she had erected within her mind. She had needed to believe that her family would remain safe while she fought the good fight. The walls had begun to crack when her younger brother had been taken and now with her mother's newly sudden death they were beginning to crumble.

She slowly turned her gaze to her left and saw her father kneeling down to the level of Alex's and talking with him in hushed, placating whispers. Her uncle was sitting by her mother's body with the expression that seemed to be the expression of the day today. Grief. She fingered the pommel of her sword still sheathed at her side and her lovely face hardened. It was not only revenge filtering through Elizabeth's veins that was turning them into a paradox of tubes running with ice and liquid fire, it was also a steely determination that she had witnessed so often upon her mother's face whenever there was some new ancient mystery to tackle. It was the same grit she had witnessed on her father's face whenever there was something threatening his family and he had to fight it.

She was bound by her duty to destroy Imhotep and the Scorpion King whenever he arose and the as yet unknown demonic foe and she was also bound by her love for her family to see it through. Damned if she would lose any of those boys situated to her left. Imhotep and that bitch of his would pay dearly for what they had done. Not only would she destroy them, she would rip their chance to rule the world with the army of the Scorpion King out of their arrogant hands first. Imhotep would never get a chance to defeat the Scorpion King with this Slayer around.

And while the prospect of ruling over the world did have a slight appeal (after all, she was human), using an army of creatures to bully everyone into submission was not the way to go about it. She would send that bloke's army to hell and make sure he and anything else that got in her way went along for the ride. The fact that in destroying Imhotep and the Scorpion King she would not only be ridding the world of unimaginable evil but also slaking her thirst for vengeance, well, that was a bonus.

She fingered the tip of the dagger she had stabbed into the ground and looked back to her brother and father with tear-filled eyes. She unclasped her crucifix and wrapped the chain around the dagger while kissing the cross. She sat it back on the ground at the base of the golden lion. With one last depressing glance at what was left of her family, the Slayer slipped away into the pyramid unnoticed. It was time to take out the vermin.

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"Stay here, Alex," Rick told his son. His voice wasn't stern or serious at all. It was merely soft and pleading.

The small, blotchy faced boy nodded and sniffled. He glimpsed over his father's shoulder and frowned. "Dad? Where's Lizzie?"

Rick's brow furrowed and he replied while turning around, "She's right be—Lizzie?!"

--------------------

Her pace was swift and measured as Elizabeth stalked the catacombs using her honed senses to lead her to her prey. She was formulating the remnants of a plan inside her head. It wasn't going too well since she was pushed nearly to her physical and emotional limits. She was at her wit's end and was relying on pure will to finish what she had come all the way to this forsaken place to do. All she knew was that if the Scorpion King was awake, she was to take him out first or die trying. The demons' mistress lady nor Imhotep could not be permitted to take the ancient menace's life.

Her hands were stained with the blood of her mother and she sorely wished she had thought to wipe them off. Elizabeth's sacred profession had rendered her rather desensitized to such things as blood and dismemberment, but the crimson life-fluid of her mother was a different matter. She could not stand the sight of it, but it seemed no matter how much she wiped her hands on her leather suit the blood was still stubbornly adhered to her skin. Tears unbidden at her mother's sudden death stung the Slayer's eyes. She breathed in a breath of stale, musty air and banished the feelings from her person. _Cry later Lizzie, kill now._

She paid no attention to the hieroglyphics that adorned the golden walls not because she couldn't read a whit of it (which she couldn't really), but because she knew instinctively which way she had to go. Her body moved seemingly without provocation as she drifted through the passageways. She approached a stairway made completely of sand at the heart of the golden pyramid. Voices whispered in the air in strange languages and shadows played across the walls. As she looked down the stairs her face twisted into a grotesque smile of malice.

Imhotep and Anck-Sunamun stood at the bottom of the stairs, before the golden crest of the face of Anubis conversing in their ancient dialect. The young woman was posed and calm as she cast occasional glances down the long passageway that led to the chamber of the Scorpion King. It was there that her lover would destroy him and thereby take control of his army. She would watch the rivers run red with the blood of humanity at her beloved's side. Her black eyes gleamed with anticipation.

Imhotep surveyed his surroundings shrewdly feeling a slight inclination to turn back. It was unthinkable to turn back now, naturally. But the high priest could not shake off the feeling of trepidation rising in his body. He pointedly decided to ignore the feeling and with his beloved Anck-Sunamun's hand in his, prepared to take a step forward.

"Going somewhere?" a voice at the top of the stairway drawled languorously.

Imhotep whipped around and his dark eyes drew in on the O'Connell girl-child. His lips curled into a smirk fraught with wicked humor and malevolence. He walked towards the stairway as the girl walked down the steps with a beautifully crafted sword in her hand.

"Slayer," he murmured in his ancient language. His admission to the O'Connell girl's identity caused Anck-Sunamun's eyes to widen in understanding and horror.

"When will you people learn? I only speak English and French, so pick one!" Elizabeth retorted saucily, meeting the mummy's eyes.

"Long I have yearned to meet the maiden warrior with the strength of the gods. There had been no slayers of Egyptian blood in my time," Imhotep continued.

Elizabeth sighed. She had no idea what this ponce was spewing to her, and at this point she really didn't care. Without thinking of the potential consequences that could arise from such an impulsive action, she sprang with incredible speed. Even Imhotep had no time to defend himself as the Chosen One slammed into him. Anck-Sunamun shrieked in surprise as her lover and the Slayer tumbled down the stairs and rolled onto the crest of Anubis.

Elizabeth was hurled off the crest by some invisible force and she collided with the hard golden wall. Groaning in pain, the Slayer slid to the floor and watched as Imhotep writhed from the same force as if he were being electrocuted. She watched in shock as a cloudy white vapor was sucked out of the resurrected mummy and Imhotep let loose a howl of anger.

"What the bloody hell?" she muttered as she rubbed the back of her aching head.

After Imhotep's body ceased being besieged by paranormal muscle spasms, he shakily rose to his feet.

Anck-Sunamun was gripping the book tightly, her beautiful face panicked. "My love?" she questioned worriedly.

Imhotep didn't bother looking to Elizabeth. He lifted his hands and gestured towards the altar before him set with the thousands-year-old offerings to Anubis. He looked as if he was trying to exercise some telekinetic will on the objects, but he was unsuccessful. Elizabeth cocked an eyebrow in intrigue.

Imhotep looked back at his lover and told her breathlessly, "The great god Anubis has taken my powers from me."

Anck-Sunamun shook her head in denial, blatant fear taking possession of her lovely features, which did not go unnoticed by Elizabeth's sharp eyes. She sat there, away from the couple, appearing forgotten for the moment, which was fine with her. It gave her a spanking good advantage.

"He must wish me to fight the Scorpion King as a...mortal," Imhotep murmured reverently as he stared at the altar.

"Then you will not fight! Without your powers, he will kill you!" Anck-Sunamun cried in despair, rushing towards her love.

Imhotep embraced her and covered her mouth with his own in assurance of their love. Anck-Sunamun wept in his arms as Elizabeth watched the interaction in amazement.

"I have no idea what's going on, but I'd wager he's not so supernatural anymore," she said aloud to herself.

Imhotep picked up the black Book of the Dead and looked his love in the eyes. He whispered softly to her, "This is our destiny, my love. My destiny."

Anck-Sunamun grabbed the book and slammed it on a slab of rock before the gateway. "No! I do not care!" She let out a cry of anguish and laid both her hands on Imhotep's cheeks. "I do not want to lose you again."

By this time Elizabeth had risen to her feet, but her eyes were still intent on the obviously distraught pair. _You know, if he wasn't an evil sod trying to take over the world and she wasn't a sleazy murdering bitch I would feel sort of sorry for them._ It was rather fascinating to see the strength of their love, she had to admit. This love had survived even death and decay for over three thousand years. Now that was commitment.

She was beginning to feel a bit annoyed with the fact that neither of them had noticed she was still there; a real threat now Imhotep had had his powers sucked out of him. The young slayer leaned back against the wall with her hand on the hilt of her sword.

Imhotep kissed his lover again with intense passion that Elizabeth felt from where she was standing. The refined English girl inside of her wanted to redden in embarrassment at witnessing such a private moment and turn away, but the rowdy American wanted to smirk and watch to see what would happen next. Anck-Sunamun clutched to him desperately and continued to weep.

The romantic moment was interrupted by the cackling of maniacal laughter from the large gateway enshrouded in a swirling mist. A cloaked form stepped from the mist and Elizabeth closed her eyes and cursed silently as she realized who it was. _There's public enemy number three._

_--------------------_

The deafening palpitations of his heart were making Rick go crazy as he ran through the catacombs, torch in hand, eyes searching frantically for signs of his daughter. Were he in his rational state, he wouldn't have worried so much because he knew now more than ever that Elizabeth could handle herself better than anyone. Yet, with the recent and sudden death of his wife Rick was terrified for his child and terrified of losing another person he loved. He had just lost he love of his life, he didn't think he could handle losing his firstborn child so soon after.

A surge of energy flew down the passageway and surpassed Rick, lighting the torches lining the walls in brackets on fire anew. Rick paused in his search and looked around him in perplexity.

"Okay," he murmured, feeling the desire more than ever to get Elizabeth, kill Imhotep and that Scorpion King, and leave this accursed place forever.

He entered a scorpion chamber and saw the Curator standing before the wall with his arm buried in the wall. The wizened scholar cackled triumphantly at the sight of his lord's sworn enemy.

"You are too late, O'Connell! I have awakened the Army of Anubis! Soon my Lord Imhotep will take command and destroy you and yours!" the Curator cried out in mad glee.

Rick's eyes flew to the double-bladed axe in one of the scorpion statue's hands and he withdrew the weapon. He appraised it with satisfaction and turned back to the Curator. His voice was eerily hollow and flat as he said, "Not after I get through with him."

The ex-Legionnaire began to leave when the Curator screamed in sudden agony. Rick whipped around and brandished the axe as the Curator struggled to pull his arm out of the hole. The warrior backed away as the older man continued to screech in excruciating pain.

Rick witnessed in horror as the Curator withdrew what was left of his hand from the hole. There was nothing left of the limb save a skinless, grotesque likeness. The old man whimpered from the pain and looked near to collapse. Rick left the man there knowing he was no longer a threat to him in the state he was in.

--------------------

"It would seem your god does not want you to fight with your impressive powers. Excellent. Makes my work easier," a low, seductive voice announced.

_Well, at least she's speaking English_, Elizabeth thought to herself grimly as she unsheathed her sword. The figure turned its hidden gaze on her and Elizabeth could only imagine the manner of expressions running across that thing's face. If it even had a face one could see expressions on.

"Slayer, it is so lovely to finally meet you. I have heard much about you," the demon lady addressed cheerfully.

"Charmed," Elizabeth deadpanned, advancing closer.

--------------------

Jonathan sat on the sand as far away from his sister's body as he could bear to be. His hazel eyes were bloodshot and itchy from tears as he stared off into space. His nephew sat beside him with his head buried in his hands, residual sobs shaking the boy's form. Jonathan felt his heart clench painfully at watching Alex weep over his dead mother. The man looked back towards the pyramid and felt a flutter of worry for Rick and his niece. Would they return to him and Alex alive? Elizabeth and Rick couldn't perish as well, because then Alex would be left with no one save himself. And Jonathan did not think he was a proper candidate to care for his nephew. It wasn't that he didn't want to, it was just that he doubted he was capable of it. He didn't want to shame his dead sister by ruining Alex.

He glanced over at Alex while trying to thinking of something, _anything_, to say that would console the child. Jonathan groped about for the words he needed to soothe the eight-year-old's pain, but he kept drawing up blanks. This happened quite a lot. What could one say to an eight-year-old boy who just witnessed his mother get stabbed to death and was now wondering over the impending fate of his father and elder sister?

"Try to...think....think of it this way, Alex. She's gone to a better place," he tried. "You know, like it says in the good book."

Alex's head snapped up in a gasp of realization. An odd quirk about this particular eight-year-old who was so much like his mother in personality and so much like his father in looks was that he was extraordinarily intelligent for such a young age. His mind was able to instantly latch on to often bizarre, but credible solutions to conflicts. "The book!"

Jonathan started at his nephew's strange response and stammered, "What?"

Alex wasted no time. He jumped to his feet and proceeded to pull his uncle to his own feet. "That's it! That's it, Uncle Jon! Come on! We have to get the book!"

Alex knew that what his young mind was formulating to do could have severe consequences, but he paid them no mind. He didn't know what any of his family members would do in such a predicament, but he did not care. All that mattered is that he may have found a way to put the fire back in his family again. And that fire was Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell.

--------------------

God I love that kid. He's such an adorable little brainiac.


	10. Death is Thy Game, Part I

Many apologies for the obvious delay of the chapter, but my computer is a bitch. Enough said, on with the story. I had to split the chapter up into two parts for suspense purposes and length purposes. Hehe. Muchas gracias to my reviwers.  
**Avalon: **Why thank you. Hope you enjoy the last bits.  
**Saxifrage: **Well, I suppose you shall find out. And gophers are not SO yesterday, they will be forever today! Btw…I have no idea what you meant by that statement lol.  
**lilylynn:** Thanks, and I tried to get it in sooner. But spyware was invented, stupid techno-terrorists.  
**Lady Aleera: **Geez, keep changing that penname and make me think I'm going crazier than usual lol. I'll read the RE fics when I see the movie so I don't get all spoiled and stuff. You're an October baby too? Mine was on the 11th, my sweet sixteenth. Crappy day really cuz it was Monday, I had to go to school, and I had an English exam on Gothic writing. Good thing I know Poe from front to back.  
**immortalwizardpirateelf-fan: **Alex rocks my world, the little cutey. And no, it's not that chick cuz I've never seen the SK movie, never had the interest really. I made this gal up.  
**Chapter Ten Title: **Death is Thy Game, Part I

--------------------

"Charmed," Elizabeth deadpanned, advancing closer.

Another surge of enemy rocked the very bowels of the pyramid causing Elizabeth to lose her balance and nearly fall forward. The demon chuckled derisively at the Slayer's display of abnormal clumsiness and started walking closer to the girl. A hand, a pure white in color, reached up to caress Elizabeth's wild, dark brown hair.

"Such a lovely girl. The last slayer I destroyed was a royal princess, a dainty little thing by appearance, but so feisty. My victory over her after five years of being enemies was absolutely priceless. I was honored to have battled such a valiant warrior and finally win." What struck Elizabeth as weird was that the demon woman's voice was not smug or filled with arrogance. She spoke of it as if she were speaking of what she had had for dinner the last night. The Slayer could not tell if she should be relieved by the tone of voice or alarmed. "I only wish we had known each other before so I could savor the moment in destroying you. At it is, you are not even worth destroying. You are exhausted and ravaged by grief; I can see it in your eyes. You would not last five minutes in a battle."

A flicker of pain was all Elizabeth allowed herself to feel before masking her entire face into a cold, hard guise of indifference. She stood up straighter, ignoring the painful twinges in her body, and brought her sword forward. She would allow no forms of weakness to be shown to the one who had already deemed her weak.

The demon woman silently let her hood come down to allow all in the vicinity to see her face. Dark green hair cascaded down narrow, muscled shoulders and made a drastic contrast with the chalk white skin. She was paler than many vampires Elizabeth had staked, which was really odd. Slanted eyes accentuated by dark eyelashes held blazing crimson orbs seeming to burn into the Slayer's very being. Elizabeth looked away from those terrifying eyes in fear of the power they might possess. She felt completely inadequate standing next to this ethereally lovely creature that one would have the gall to call a demon. Demons were more often than not, extremely ugly or at the very least, inhuman looking. This creature was far too beautiful to be called a demon.

From the sounds of the gasps of the others in the chamber, Elizabeth was brought hurdling back to reality. Imhotep and his bitch were still in the chamber with them. This was quite a conundrum she had caught herself in, Elizabeth realized. She knew what Imhotep had in plan for the world should he take over; it roughly entailed death and suffering for all of humanity. She had no idea what this demon woman planned, but had a hunch the good of humanity was not exactly her idea.

Elizabeth was trying to figure out how she was going to go about preventing the Scorpion King's death by one of their hands, but it was so hard to think through the haze of drowsiness that had descended upon her. Her sword suddenly felt a lot heavier than it usually did and she felt the urge to let it clatter to her feet. Her already fatigued body welcomed the chance at rest and responded by making her eyes flicker repeatedly. A small part of her fought against the unnatural lethargy bombarding her; it knew that this was just a ruse of the demon woman's to get her out of the way. The creature was so full of dignity and pride that she didn't even want to bother fighting Elizabeth in her weakened state.

But Elizabeth had pushed herself farther than her body had ever been pushed and yearned for the sweet release of sleep. So it was without struggle that she allowed the demon woman to lay her gently down on the Crest of Anubis. Elizabeth closed her eyes and let herself drift off to sleep with a barely conceived sigh of relief as the creature left the chamber. Imhotep and his lover had already gone.

--------------------

Had his uncle not been walking behind him carrying the corpse of his beloved mother, Alex might just have paused in his journey through the passageways of the golden pyramid amidst the enchanted oasis to admire the intricate and ancient beauty of it. But his mind was far too preoccupied with the major crime of nature he was about to commit. He seriously must have been out of his eight-year-old mind to think he could actually accomplish a resurrection using the same book that had gotten his parents into this whole mess in the first place over fifteen years ago. His grasp on the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics was mediocre at best, but he had to try; if not for himself, then for his father.

Having seen the way his father had grieved so terribly over the body of his mother, Alex was terrified that he had lost his father the way he was as well. He felt the only way to bring his father back to himself would be to bring back the woman he loved. He hoped against hope that his father and sister were still alive, but he didn't let himself think about their fates too much.

Feeling the deafening silence weighting heavily down upon his shoulders, Jonathan decided to try and break the chain. He needed something, anything, to take his mind off the fact that he was carrying his little sister's lifeless, bloodied body in his arms. "You do know that you actually have to be able to read Ancient Egyptian to do what you're planning," he said nervously. "I don't know about you, but I'm a _tad_ rusty." _Tad_ was putting it lightly; Jonathan had not so much as looked at hieroglyphics since the whole fiasco at Hamunaptra years ago.

Alex halted before a graphic encrusted onto a wall right before a turn in their passageway. He nodded his torch toward it and said, "Kasheesh assyrian nye…basically, 'This way to the Scorpion King'." The boy shrugged and turned his sky blue eyes onto his mother's older brother.

The man stared at his nephew in complete incredulity and opened his mouth to ask where the hell that boy had learned that, before his common sense finally made itself known. Evelyn must have taught him all that rubbish. Alex confirmed it, "Mum taught me."

Alex continued walking down the musty corridor, and Jonathan shook his head. "You know, this might just be crazy enough to work."

--------------------

His bloodstained hands were holding onto the battle-axe like it was a lifeline. His light blue eyes were tainted by fury and pain so palpable the very air seemed to wedge a pathway for the warrior. He flicked some light brown strands of hair out of his eyes as he stomped down the winding corridors of the golden pyramid. Though he had no supernatural instincts like his daughter boasted, Rick O'Connell had a little something of his own. He had a keen warrior's sense prevalent since birth and intended to take full advantage of it. He knew somehow where his enemy lay within the dank catacombs of this treacherous place, he knew he was headed in the right direction.

He had not yet found Elizabeth, which caused Rick to jump to outrageous conclusions about her fate. He feared her lying on the ground, bleeding like her mother from a startlingly similar wound, calling out for help when none would hearken to her cries. He quickened his pace subconsciously and approached a stairway made completely of sand. The whispers in the air continued in their subtle, yet annoyingly eerie fashion causing more than a few hairs on Rick's person to stand on end. When he saw what lie in the chamber below he felt like something had just punched him in the stomach.

On a beautifully wrought insignia of Anubis, lay the curled up, inert form of a teenaged girl. There were no other teenaged girls that Rick had seen in this vile place so that left only one person. _Elizabeth, no._ He felt his heart palpitate painfully in his chest as he struggled to breathe, but found his lungs were suddenly denying the passage of air. No. It could not be the cold, lifeless body of his only daughter, his firstborn child, on that gilded floor.

"Lizzie?" he whispered hoarsely. He flew down the steps at break neck speed and slid across the floor towards his child. She had no weapons with her; her body seemed no more injured than when he had last seen her and her face was set peacefully. Rick kneeled down beside her and flipped her onto her back. His hands shook uncontrollably and he felt the beginnings of tears start to prickle his eyes. When his panicked mind finally registered the steady up and down motion of her chest and the soft sounds of air passing through her nostrils he rocked back on his heels in insurmountable relief. She was alive, merely sleeping soundly.

His brow furrowed and his eyes darkened with suspicion. Why was she sleeping? He knew she had been pretty tired, but surely not enough to lie down on the floor and take a nap with all that was going on. Elizabeth wouldn't shirk her duties like that no matter how weary she was. Something was wrong; more so than what was already wrong.

He shook her gently and called her name with a great amount of urgency in his voice. "Lizzie! Wake up! No time for napping, princess!"

He heard a half-hearted groan sounding all too similar to the many he and his wife had heard over the years of trying to coax their daughter out of bed for school. She was most certainly not a morning person. Rick rolled his eyes and sat her limp body up into a sitting position and violently shook her awake until her eyes opened and she reflexively gasped in surprise and batted him away. The slight force of her disoriented struggle sent Rick stumbling backwards to fall flat on his rear a few feet away.

Elizabeth felt the drowsiness whoosh away in an instant and tried to regain her bearings. When she realized it had been her father who had awakened her and her father that she had pushed away, she cringed. "Dad! Oh, sorry! It…was…uh…reflex." She shakily got to her feet as her father rose to his own and surveyed her surroundings in utter confusion. The last of the enchantment was beginning to unravel and Elizabeth felt her ire grow by the second.

When she realized her weapons were missing and that all three of the known enemies were gone, she reddened in anger directed towards her self and that demon. "That bitch! She took my bloody weapons and put me to sleep!? Why didn't she just kill me?! I'll never learn how evil people tick!"

Rick looked questioningly at his daughter and she glared towards the gateway enshrouded in mist. "I am going to disembowel that wench," he heard his daughter grumble.

"What are you talking about?" Rick finally queried as Elizabeth shook off the vestiges of sleep.

"Remember those demons I went after, well I killed six of the blokes and…erm…persuaded one into telling me about his mistress's plan to up the competition. So, it looks like Imhotep is no longer the only evil nutter who wants a shot at the Scorpion King."

Rick sighed and muttered, "Dammit."

"My sentiments exactly."

--------------------

Anck-Sunamun rubbed the stomach of her new body in a vain attempt to dissolve the tight knot of liquid fear roiling and tumbling about in her gut. She tried to dispel the worries for her love that plagued her, but to no avail. She could only picture his dead and broken body at the hand of the Scorpion King or that demon or their true enemies, the O'Connells. She wanted to leave this place and go into quiet seclusion with her beloved Imhotep. The world at her feet was not worth his death.

While the strange creature spoke to the O'Connell girl-child, Imhotep and she had slipped away to another chamber not far off. He had left her there with the black Book of the Dead should she need to use it to resurrect him if he should fail to defeat the Scorpion King. Then he had left her there, despairing and tear-stricken, to fight the ancient legend soon to come to life.

The once proud Egyptian princess ran her hands over the smooth surface of the book and tried to ponder over its hand in all these events to keep her mind off her doomed lover. It was a marvel that such a harmless object could be the cause of such cataclysmic events. It was the reason she and Imhotep both were alive again today. But she often wondered if she wouldn't be better off dead, at peace. Sometimes she dreamed of being wrapped in the warm shadowy breath of the afterlife feeling supreme contentment. Though she couldn't conceivably remember with her mind where her Ka had resided in the roughly four thousand years since her death, her heart recalled it fondly. But she was too entranced with living in this world of technology and modernization to let it go.

Anck-Sunamun turned in surprise at the voice of a man. She sneered when she saw it was that doddering brother of the woman she had recently killed. His hazel eyes sparked with a mixture of fear, nervousness, and anger directed towards her.

"So lady, you fancy going around stabbing innocent damsels? Why don't you fight a real man?" Jonathan taunted, balling his fists up and holding them in front of him unsteadily. He really ought to have had Elizabeth give him some combat pointers on that bloody balloon. He looked over at the beautiful, dark-haired woman and gulped in uncertainty, but put a brave face on. "It's time to teach you a lesson, wench!" he spat in acute disgust. "Come and get it!"

The woman smirked and stepped down of the dais flexing her long, slender fingers. Her black eyes gleamed with mirthful anticipation and Jonathan got the idea that she wasn't afraid of him in the least bit. He surreptitiously glanced briefly past her to see his nephew quietly tiptoe up to grab the book and slink away as quickly as he could manage without making a sound.

As Jonathan turned his eyes back on the woman who stood in front of him sizing him up, he felt the stirrings of emotions he had never felt in his life. The woman before him was a sight to behold indeed. She had lovely, smooth skin tanned to a golden brown hue with shimmering ebony locks and bold black irises complimenting the almond shaped eyes and dark eyelashes. Her body was just the right size for his particular tastes, curvy and firm. Her face was firm and beautifully wrought as if the Gods themselves had bestowed their radiance upon her.

Yet, to Jonathan, this was the most hideous, despicable woman on the planet. The ne'er-do-well British man who frequented pubs more often than libraries felt a hatred so deep it seemed to scorch his very soul as he stared at the woman who had viciously stolen his beloved sister away from him. At any other time, (well, actually he had contemplated upon it a week ago in the mansion when he first met her) he might have entertained the notion of wooing this delectable lady. He had no gift of insight into human souls or any extra sensitivity to the person inside, but the fact that this was the woman who had killed Evelyn was enough to distort her striking features into grotesque horrors.

Feeling bile rise up in his throat he growled at Anck-Sunamun, "This is for my sister." He swung at her, the first swing he had ever taken at a lady, and was shocked to have his blow blocked. He looked at the woman, awestruck, before trying to dodge out of the way as she punched him. He foolishly stayed within striking range thus letting the woman punch him again.

Jonathan finally backed away from the woman, but took care to keep her attention on him lest she should notice something was missing. He tasted the coppery tang of blood seep into his mouth and winced when he realized she had busted his lip. A few weeks ago, he would never have believed a young woman could do such a thing even to a shoddy fighter such as himself. But after witnessing his niece's skills and hearing of his sister's own nascent combat prowess, he was apt to never take a woman's meek appearance for granted again. Hell, this broad here didn't even _look_ timid.

Anck-Sunamun's lovely face twisted into a devious grin of wicked delight and her eyes brightened. She felt a bestial sensation overtake her system and circled the twitchy man who eyed her nervously. She could practically taste the fear pouring from him and she reveled in it. She would play with him like a cat does with its prey before lunging in for the kill. At least she would have something to occupy her time with while awaiting her lover's triumph or defeat.

--------------------

Rick followed his extremely pissed off daughter down the passageway behind the misty gateway. The stale air crackled around her as proof of her intense ire. Rick would definitely not want to be on the receiving end of that ire. As the two warriors passed into a dark cavern filled with an even grander display of eerie shadows and smoke, they heard the ringing of a giant gong. The two O'Connells saw that it was Imhotep striking the gong with a large pole in order to quicken the awakening of the Scorpion King. This guy was completely insane in Elizabeth's opinion. He wanted to make sure the thing that was most likely going to render him a few limbs short of a body awoke faster? Like she intoned before, she would never understand how evil people ticked.

She scanned the chamber for a sign of the despicable demon that had hoodwinked her into falling asleep and letting them escape. She spotted a pair of golden sais ensconced in the hands of a gold statue and marched forward to withdraw them. The soft sliding sound of metal on metal was oddly soothing to her ears and she twirled the weapons around in her hands experimentally. Though sword fighting was her obvious forte, like all slayers she was pretty much a natural at the use of any weapon. She had practiced with sais before and had taken quite a liking to the less commonly known weapons. Though the small, three-pronged blades had to have been in that statue for thousands of years, they glittered brightly without a sign of wear or tarnish. They felt smooth and comfortable against the skin of her hands.

She nodded in approval of her father's double-headed axe and smiled cheekily amidst all the tension. "Taking a leaf out of my book, are we?"

Rick smiled sardonically in spite of himself. "Well, technically I've used axes before you were born. So it would be the other way around."

"Like father, like daughter," Elizabeth murmured.

Imhotep whipped around as he senses their presences and his black eyes appraised them calmly. He looked like he didn't know what to do about them at first before he smiled maliciously. Elizabeth would have to find out where these evil people learned how to smile so icily that it turned her spine into a veritable ice pop. She wanted to learn how to do it. She fought for composure and said quietly to her father, "You take him, he's lost his powers," she told him, "Kick his arse, please?"

Rick gnashed his teeth at the sight of the excuse for humanity that had been the cause of all his pain. "Will do, Lizzie. Will do." He didn't even say a last word or anything of affection before lunging across the crevice that separated the two men and swinging his axe downward.

Imhotep brought up the pole to deflect the blow. The pole got caught just under one of the blades and Imhotep used his own human strength to flip Rick's axe right out of his hands. Unfortunately, he had flung his own pole out of his hands as well. Apparently he should have spent some time brushing up on his combat skills instead of relying on his supernatural powers because they wouldn't do him any good now seeing as how they were gone and all.

He and Rick backed off from one another and stood facing each other. Imhotep grinned and said, "The eternal warriors meet again. Now we shall see what Fate desires."

Rick rolled his eyes. Would this yahoo ever figure out he didn't understand anything he ever said?

--------------------

Feeling confident that her father could hold his own with Imhotep, Elizabeth sent her senses searching for that elusive demon woman. She could feel her presence faintly, but the creature must have been masking it somehow for her not to be able to narrow it down a bit more.

Elizabeth didn't have to wait long as a familiar figure stepped out of the shadows. The beast stood there with an unreadable expression upon her face and the Slayer's own sword in her hands. That had been Roland's father's sword, a gift for her on her fifteenth birthday. Her loathing for this creature became reality as she stroked the silver blade lovingly.

"An impressive piece of weaponry. Late medieval I would say and fashioned by a blacksmith who had dabbled in the black arts. It has quite a few protection spells upon it. Luckily, its sort of magic only harms abominations like vampires. For pure creatures such as myself, it does nothing." Her tone of voice was again merely conversational and it was really beginning to irk this slayer. Why couldn't she come off as haughty and garish as the rest of them?

But Elizabeth hadn't known the sword had protection spells upon it? Why did her watcher never tell her that? Or had he been ignorant of that fact as well. Somehow she found it quite unlikely that her studious mentor would overlook such an important factor.

"I suppose that you will not allow me to go through with my plans without some sort of battle, Slayer. I am surprised you have awakened from my sleeping spell sooner than expected. Guess you're stronger than I thought," the demon woman continued. Then, without a semblance of warning, she swung Elizabeth's sword so fast the Slayer only just managed to bring up the sais to deflect it. Elizabeth's arms vibrated from the immense force used. She gritted her teeth and twirled around to kick the creature in the face. She went scattering across the chamber. On the other side, Imhotep and Rick continued their own deadly duel.

--------------------

Jonathan's attempt at trying to withhold his cry of pain failed slightly by turning into a muffled grunt as Anck-Sunamun leveled a hard, expertly executed kick to his ribs. He stumbled back as the princess cackled manically at his plight. This was something he would never live down if he happened to survive it at all. One could paint it anyway he liked, but the fact was Jonathan was getting his skinny arse kicked by a woman.

His green-brown eyes widened as she pulled some wicked, three-pronged blades—crafted completely out of gold it appeared—from a statue. He barely had time to bring up his gold scepter to block the blow she dealt him with her new weapons. He was starting to get frantic now and called out in a panicked howl, "Hurry up, Alex!"

Anck-Sunamun's lovely brow creased in a frown of puzzlement as she turned around. Jonathan gasped and impulsively struck out with his scepter. His ploy of distraction worked and she was forced to bring her sais upwards to parry it.

--------------------

Alex sat in front of his mother's body taking great care in avoiding looking at the shell of the woman whom he cherished most in this world. He had the Book of the Dead propped up in his lap and had quickly found the section meant for resurrecting souls up from the underworld.

Under Evelyn's tutelage, Alex had a better grasp on the ancient Egyptian languages and writings than most children his age, but he was nowhere near her level. Yet, he found reading from the heavy, black book easier than he had thought it would be. The words seemed to flow from him mechanically instead of his constant stumbling over the correct way to say the word and matching the words to the symbols accurately. Perhaps it was his exposure to the dark, ancient magic of the Bracelet of Anubis that increased his prowess. At least he got something good out of this rotten deal.

"'_Hootash naraba oos Veesloo. Ahm kum Ra. Ahm kum dei. Efday shokran. Efday shokran'…_erm…blast…em," Alex stammered, trying desperately to recall what the last symbol meant. He groaned in frustration and yelled out to his uncle in a shrill, anxious voice, "Uncle Jon! I can't remember what this last symbol means!"

Jonathan heard his nephew's cry and threw Anck-Sunamun off of him before yelling back, "What's it look like?!" It just figured that the kid would forget the _last_ symbol. And Jonathan thought it was a rather narrow chance that he would remember it. _Well, it was too bloody good to be true that we would get Evy back. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. I might as well take a crack at it though, 'snot like there's much hope we'll survive anyway._

After a cursory glance at the symbol, Alex scrunched his small face up and yelled, "It's a bird, I think! No, a stork! Yeah, I think it's a stork!"

Right before Anck-Sunamun barreled into him, Jonathan felt ecstasy fill his entire being at those words. He could kiss Fate right now for making that symbol the one in question because that had been the exact same symbol he had not been able to recall over fifteen years ago at Hamunaptra. Ironically, it was one of the only hieroglyphic symbols he could remember now.

"I know that one! I know that one!" He cried jubilantly, grinning widely in spite of his dire situation. A delicate, golden-brown hand latched tightly onto his throat and Jonathan was forced to grab Anck-Sunamun's wrist before she shoved the tip of her blade into his throat. He tried to choke out the word, "Ah…ah…ah." An unexpected surge of adrenaline and strength gave him the edge he needed to push her off of him and shout, "Ahmenophus!"

Alex's blue eyes lit up and he quickly intoned, "That's it! '_Efday shokran Ahmenophus!'"_

Jonathan felt the tip of Anck-Sunamun's blade slash against his chest and he looked down at the crimson thread of blood beginning to form. He felt his death was very near and was too exhausted to combat it. With his back up against the stone column, he yelped in alarm when his opponent came forward to deliver the final, fatal blow. That blow never came for a very familiar hand connected to a very familiar arm stopped it.

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" an icily, cool voice growled. That voice sounded like the voice of angels to Jonathan.

Anck-Sunamun was shoved off of Jonathan and sent falling to the stone floor. She quickly stood back up, but made no move to attack just yet.

In complete shock, Jonathan looked up into the cold, dark blue eyes he never thought he would see in that particular woman (since another girl boasted the same exact eyes) again. He felt his throat choke up with too many emotions at once and he stuttered over words while tears of joy stung his eyes, "Oh my god, Evy! It worked!"

Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell did not answer. She stood there, completely alive, completely healed, and completely ticked off at the woman who killed her and had been about to kill her brother. Her son was standing behind her looking like he had just pulled off the greatest trick in the world, which he had, and his grin was wider than his headmaster's ample waist. He held onto the Book of the Dead, holding it close to his body in case he might need to use it to mess with nature again. He rather liked messing with nature he fancied.

For a beat, Anck-Sunamun stared in complete incredulity at the woman she had killed not an hour before while Evelyn eyed her in total malevolence. Their eyes were twin pools of hatred stemming from a four-thousand-year-old rivalry and betrayal. This was an extremely old score to settle, a score that had survived death and the afterlife, but it had to be settled. Evelyn could not allow this woman to walk away from what she had done to her father in her past life as Princess Nefertiri and what she had done to her family in this life. And of course, there was that pesky thing about Anck-Sunamun being the one who killed her and all. It's the sort of thing a girl doesn't forget.

"Jonathan," Evelyn addressed her brother calmly, never taking her eyes off of the other woman. "Take Alex, and find my husband and daughter. Make sure they're all right."

"But Mum!" Alex whined, afraid of losing his mother so soon after having regained her.

"No buts, Alex. Do as I say," Evelyn replied sternly in a voice that brooked no argument. "I'll be just fine."

Jonathan was just as reluctant as Alex to leave his sister alone with that bitch, but he could tell from the tone of her voice that she was serious. And although he didn't know how he knew, but he knew that she would come out fine from this conflict with Imhotep's whore. He could tell from the mutual heat of pure hatred radiating off the two that it was much better for him and Alex to leave them be. So, he took his nephew by the shoulder and steered him out of the chamber to find his brother-in-law and niece.

Meanwhile, Evelyn had snatched two golden sais out of a statue and circled Anck-Sunamun with a calculating gaze. At first, her opponent looked completely mystified as to her true identity, but once she twirled the sais around in her hand in a manner reminiscent of a pupil of hers from long ago, she smirked in recognition and understanding. It would seem she wasn't the only Ancient Egyptian princess who got reincarnated. Fate had brought them to this final destination to finish what was started thousands of years ago and Anck-Sunamun had accepted the call. So had Evelyn or rather Nefertiri reincarnated.

"Nefertiri," she stated coolly.

Evelyn responded with another twirl of her sais and replied back in an equally cool voice, "Anck-Sunamun."

"Good," Anck-Sunamun said in Ancient Egyptian before lunging forward.

And so the battle that had been fought thousands of years ago by the same women only in different bodies was forged anew with a greater intensity. Their blows were no longer mock blows for sparring, but were true attempts at ending the life of the other. It was a true battle to the death now and only one would walk away from this fight. Evelyn used her knowledge from her previous life coupled with the more modern ways of fighting her husband had taught her in a unique combination. When Anck-Sunamun pushed her against a stone column and sneered, "You still remember the old ways?", Evelyn had glared and snapped her head forward to hit the woman in the forehead with the crown of her head. Anck-Sunamun was sent reeling back from that unexpected blow.

"That's a little something new," Evelyn retorted. With her confidence renewed, Evelyn advanced forward. She could not lose this battle like she had lost the last one fought between the two. She flung Anck-Sunamun's sais out of her hands and sliced at her opponent's cheek drawing blood. Her ancient rival looked at her in utter shock and fear before thinking twice about coming to blows with her again. She ran. Evelyn cursed and ran after her.

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Their weapons having been lost in the fight, Imhotep and Rick were fighting each other with their bare fists. Rick had been surprised at the Egyptian priest's stamina and skill in unarmed combat. He had expected less from someone who had come to rely on fancy magic tricks, but life was just full of surprises. Rick himself was rather sick of surprises; he had had his more than fair share of them. Surprises for Rick O'Connell usually turned out to be bad, very bad.

Rick was glad they had unintentionally dispensed with the weapons because he was reveling in his chance at beating the life out of the man who had ruined his life…or choking….he couldn't decide on which method to use yet. Imhotep seemed just as pleased. _Well, then we're all happy, aren't we?_ The man thought sardonically as he doubled over from the kick to his abdomen.

His eyes strayed ever so briefly over to the vicious battle of blades between his daughter and that…he was sure it was a demon, but it was moving too fast to tell. He had never seen a slayer truly in action because all he had ever seen Elizabeth fight was normal humans. He had not witnessed her actions against the soldier mummy on that double-decker back in London a week ago except for the last one and that had been over as soon as it began. He was caught speechless at the intricate dance of death the two were unwittingly performing. He couldn't track either of the two's moves because both moved faster than he could see from his vantage point.

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Elizabeth finally came to the conclusion after the fiftieth time she had narrowly missed a fatal lunge that this was to be her final battle. She was too battle-worn and weary from grief to contend with this creature…did she even have a name? Her will and anger were the only things keeping her of the living, but even that was beginning to wane. She already had been sliced open a few times by her own damn sword, which pissed her off to no end, and was always thinking the next one would be the end of her. But by some miracle, she was still standing in marginal good condition. But luck has a tendency to run out in life, especially in that of a slayer's.

A great tremor rocked the cavern the two pairs of warriors battled in. They heard a rumbling sound sounding like the roar of a living thing, a big living thing. Elizabeth would swear until her dying day that her heart literally stopped the moment the Scorpion King materialized into view.

Awoken from an incredibly long slumber, this fellow gave the expression, "not a morning person", a whole new meaning. Both Elizabeth and her demon foe paused in their deadly duel to goggle at the immense monstrosity that was the Scorpion King. With a lower extremity of a giant, dark brown scorpion and the torso and head of a muscular, warrior-built man, the ancient warrior king was a grotesque monument to a dead culture indeed.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Elizabeth grumbled aloud.

"What's the matter, Slayer? Afraid?" her foe mocked.

Elizabeth looked at the woman-demon and gestured wildly to the Scorpion King. "Bloody hell! Yes! What, did you think me insane?! Look at that bloke! I didn't think he would literally be half-scorpion!"

"Ah, Slayer, you must learn to expect the unexpected in your line of work. Of course, you will no longer have to worry about that soon," the creature replied.

Elizabeth scowled and spat sarcastically, "Well, I'll just thank my lucky stars for that! And would you quit calling me, 'Slayer'?! My father did not name me _Slayer_; he named me, Elizabeth."

The creature smiled viciously and responded, "Well, _Elizabeth_, I am called Sarfresca. If you'll excuse me," she swung Elizabeth's sword forward, "I have a half-human monarch to obliterate and an army to control."

"Over my dead body," Elizabeth vowed, jumping on Sarfresca. She cringed at her word choice because it might just come to exactly that. Hopefully, Sarfresca's arrogance would undo her like all the rest of them but hope was running out. The two continued their vicious battle with their blades clanging together in a ferocious intensity. Elizabeth lost hold of her sais and tripped over a raised bit of stone floor. She felt her blood freeze in her veins at the sight above her.

"Well, if you insist," Sarfresca growled. She thrust the Slayer's sword right at her exposed stomach to impale the girl with her own weapon.

A scream of agonizing pain echoed throughout the caverns and corridors and filled every mortal and immortal's ears, causing everyone to pause in their respective battles.

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Damn, I'm evil aren't I?


	11. Death is Thy Game, Part II

Tis the last chapter my friends. I appreciate all those that have read and especially those that took the time to review. You are all godsends. I want to wish everyone a Happy Holidays no matter which holiday you celebrate. If you have ideas for the sequel, feel free to email me, im me, or put it in the reviews. They are much appreciated!  
**ThespianMoonlight**: Sorry for the wait. My mind got caught up with other fics and other things.  
**Saxifrage**: Gee, guess Alex will have to use the Book of the Dead to bring you back. lol.  
Thanks also to **Lilylynn, deiron lionheart**, and **SandraSmit19**.  
**Chapter Eleven Title: **Death is Thy Game, Part II

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Rick swallowed the enormous stone seeming to have materialized out of nowhere when the Scorpion King appeared. He had not expected to fight some half-human, half-scorpion hybrid thing. He thought the Scorpion King would at least look like a man, well both halves anyway. He backed away from Imhotep, who was too busy staring at the monstrous entity to notice. He noticed with a brief glance that his daughter had also paused in her battle with the demon creature to goggle.

The creature cast a dark, menacing gaze around his surroundings and let loose a majestic roar. Asleep for thousands of years he was now finally free to reign again. Now all that was left for him to do was crush the opposition and judging by the new form gifted by his patron god, it would be extremely easy. He centered his attention on the Egyptian-born man and charged towards him.

Imhotep, seeing that the Scorpion King had targeted him, thought fast. He dropped to one knee and bowed before the creature intoning over and over in the ancient dialect, "I am your disciple! I am your disciple!"

The creature halted right before cleaving his body and two and looked down at him suspiciously. Rick stood behind the pair; fervently hoping the bastard would kill the other bastard he had just been fighting. He saw Imhotep point to him and yell something, which Rick did not take as a good sign.

"But he was sent to kill you!" the high priest cried desperately.

The Scorpion King turned his derisive glare onto Rick and growled furiously. "Oh, shit," Rick mumbled as he turned on his heels and scampered down a corridor to escape the lunging monstrous pincers of the creature. The roars of the ancient menace echoed throughout the dank catacombs.

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Evelyn was like a machine of pure rage as her feet pounded on the ground whist chasing down her enemy. Anck-Sunamun had turned down corridor after corridor in vain attempts to throw off her nemesis's pursuit, but Evelyn, Princess Nefertiri reincarnated, was not to be thwarted. This woman had been the cause of so much pain to her and her family in both lives, past and present. It was time for her to get her comeuppance just like that dreadful man, Beni, had gotten his so many years ago.

They entered the cavern where the battles between Imhotep and Rick and Elizabeth and Sarfresca had been going on respectively. Anck-Sunamun skidded to a stop in a gilded archway as her black eyes took in the awesome sight of the Scorpion King. Her heart palpitated in fear for her lover, but she saw him across the huge gaping crater in the floor and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh my god," Evelyn breathed, her voice sounding so small and weak compared to the strength and hardness of it before. She whimpered slightly when the creature turned on her husband and prayed as he ran out of the caverns that he would be all right. She could not bear to lose him like he had lost her. She then remembered her enemy beside her and quickly grabbed the young woman's arm with a fierce scowl upon her face.

"You will not escape this time, Anck-Sunamun," Evelyn growled in the ancient language with perfect fluency. With a flick of her wrist, she jammed the butt end of her sai into the other woman's face and she went crashing to the floor unconscious. Evelyn stood there, as still as could be, trying and failing to turn the sai around and jab the pointed end into the woman who had shown her the same courtesy. Technically, for all she had put Evelyn through and all the destruction she had wreaked, it wouldn't be enough punishment for this foul creature. Tears of anger long harbored and the stabbing feeling of loss and betrayal all caused by this woman stung the back of Evelyn's dark blue eyes. Remembering her Nefertiri's father's brutal death at her hands and her own painful death just recently, the proud scholar's hands tightened on the handle of the sai and she lifted it up to prepare the final lunge.

Something made Evelyn's death blow halt in its path. It was not so much of a sound as it was a rippling sensation, eerie and foreboding in its intensity, that made her turn her head around. She gasped when she saw the losing battle her daughter was fighting with a…it must have been a demon. It was her maternal instinct; her natural alarm system kicking in to tell her one of her children was in very grave danger.

"Lizzie," she whispered, leaving Anck-Sunamun slumped against the wall and skirting across the floor to save her child. She screamed, "Nooooo!" as the creature prepared to impale Elizabeth with her own sword. Before anyone could react, Evelyn leapt upon the demon's back and thrust her sai right through its back, piercing it right through the heart.

Elizabeth just stared in dumb shock as the golden, blood drenched, sharp point of a sai poked through her opponent's chest and a piercing scream of pain rent the air. Sarfresca reeled back and whomever it was that had stabbed her was thrown off. Elizabeth's sword was released from those treacherous hands and the girl darted forward to retrieve it.

Sarfresca sank to the floor while blood, as red as any human's, spurted from her gaping wound and dribbled out of her mouth. Elizabeth wasted no more time; she swung the sword right at the demon woman's neck and cleaved her neck right from her body. She stood there for a while, her sword hanging loosely in her hand, and stared at the thing that nearly ended her life right there and then. If it weren't for her mysterious, as yet unknown, savior Sarfresca would have another dead slayer to add to her belt.

"Lizzie? Are you all right?"

Elizabeth felt everything within her stiffen and freeze at the sound of that gentle, anxious voice. _No, it cannot be. _It was the voice she had heard when she was a little girl and scraped her knee, the gentle, loving voice filled with motherly concern. It could not be her mother; this place must have been playing tricks on her. It was not possible that her mother had been the one to save her. She had sat beside her while she had died. She turned slowly around and felt her throat constrict and her sword dropped to the floor making an ominous clanging sound.

Elizabeth stared at the woman who had borne her with wide, dark blue eyes, just daring to hope that what she was seeing was real. She felt like something was compressing on her lungs and could barely get the words out to say, "Oh my god. Mum? Is it really you? How can…why…are you…" Elizabeth could not reach her usual articulate level with the amount of emotions that were attacking her. She cleared her throat and said as calmly as she could manage in a shaky voice, "Are you…alive? How is this possible?"

Evelyn smiled reassuringly and walked slowly to her child with her arms open. "I think we shall have to speak with those respective brothers of ours to figure out the how part," the woman said with a wry smile.

Elizabeth's jaw dropped in awe. "Alex and Uncle Jon? They did this? Where the bloody hell did they learn—oh! The Book of the Dead? I saw Imhotep's harlot carrying it after she…you know. How did they get it?"

"From Anck-Sunamun," Evelyn said crisply. "Don't just stand there, silly girl. Come and hug your mother."

Elizabeth was only too happy to obey as she sank into her mother's arms and let the tears of absolute joy where there had been nothing but grief and anguish before flow. Evelyn stroked her daughter's hair and whispered soothing words to her as Elizabeth wept on her shoulder.

"I thought we had lost you there, Mum. Don't scare us like that again," Elizabeth choked out. She could stay like this forever in her mother's tight embrace, feeling the serenity and security specific only to a mother's love. But, alas, she was the Slayer and possessed not the time to bask in her mother's return to life for very long. She reluctantly pulled away and picked up her sword from where it lay beside Sarfresca's headless body. After staring at it for a while, she began to giggle for no apparent reason to Evelyn.

"What's so funny?" Evelyn asked in confusion, failing to see the humor in the situation.

Elizabeth shook her head and wiped at her swollen, red eyes. "I don't know. Maybe it's the fact that Sarfresca was boasting about all the slayers she killed and she finally gets defeated, but it's not by a slayer. You, a normal…well, mostly normal human being, were the one to finally knock her off that bloody soapbox. It's just a lovely spot of irony, don't you agree, Mother?"

"But you were the one who…killed her," Evelyn pointed out.

"I wouldn't have been able to do that had you not stepped in and stabbed her with your sai, which is really nifty by the way. If it weren't for you, I would be a slayer shish-kabob right about now, I'd wager," Elizabeth replied, extricating it from the demon's back and handing it to her mother. Evelyn grimaced in disgust at the sticky, red blood that coated the blade, but shrugged it off.

"Well, I think we have ourselves a Scorpion King and an annoying mummy to send back to hell. I figure Dad could use some help right about now," Elizabeth said with a surprising amount of calmness. Though her body was near to dropping dead from fatigue, she intending to see all of this through to the end. She envied the effortless way her mother held herself upright and how not a drop of exertion seemed to drip from her body. _I suppose being resurrected from the dead reenergizes you as well. _

Evelyn nodded grimly and looked down upon the sais in her hands. Suddenly, Elizabeth lunged forward and wrenched her mother out of the way of Anck-Sunamun's blade. It seemed the woman had come to and decided to creep up on the pair unawares. Acting on pure instinct, the Slayer thrust her sword up and through Anck-Sunamun's chest. The woman gasped in surprise and pain and Elizabeth stood there, one hand on the pommel of her blade and the other on Anck-Sunamun's shoulder, staring in mute shock at what she had done.

The woman keeled over on Elizabeth's sword and then fell backwards, literally sliding off the metal embedded in her flesh. She fell to the floor and curled up in a fetal position, moaning piteously as blood pooled around her. She gasped helplessly for air as fluids poured into her lung where the sword had punctured it. She twitched and moaned for a while before lying still, her black eyes staring sightlessly ahead.

Elizabeth stepped away from the dead woman, completely shocked by what she done. She had killed a human being; she had violated one of the most sacred laws of the Slayer. Slayers were not supposed to kill humans. Period. She might have killed some humans back in the jungle, but she hadn't stopped to find out and didn't really care to. This she had done consciously, but it did not seem to matter. All that mattered was the woman had been intent on taking away her mother again and Elizabeth had to stop her.

"Lizzie?" Evelyn asked breathlessly. She looked into her daughter's bewildered eyes.

"Oh god. Mum, I…I'm not supposed to kill humans," Elizabeth lowered her gaze to see the shiny, ruby dripping blade of her weapon; dripping with the blood of Anck-Sunamun, Imhotep's lover.

"Elizabeth, listen to me. You know as well as I that nothing can be done about this. She would have killed either of us without a second thought and she nearly did kill me…again. You did what you had to do," Evelyn told her daughter sternly, gripping the stricken girl by the shoulders.

Elizabeth met her mother's steadfast eyes and nodded. She was right. Even if they used the Book of the Dead to raise the woman back from the dead—which was extremely stupid even to contemplate—it would not erase the fact that Elizabeth had killed her. The weird thing was, she was feeling only a little remorse at what she had done. If Anck-Sunamun had been some innocent bystander taking a misguided hit, then she would probably have been consumed with guilt. But this woman had been inherently evil _and_ was supposed to have been dead for thousands of years. She had nothing but contempt for the rest of humanity. She was far more evil than many demons Elizabeth knew, which served to strengthen her belief in humans quite possibly being the worse monsters of them all.

"But, what if the Council finds out?" Elizabeth asked softly.

"They won't. They don't have to," Evelyn declared.

Elizabeth nodded and let her mother take the lead as they waltzed across the cavern, leaving Anck-Sunamun's corpse where it lay in the crimson pool. God willing, she would stay dead this time.

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Rick practically dived across the narrow catacomb in order to avoid being snapped in half by one of the Scorpion King's massive claws. His lungs felt like they were on fire from the lack of oxygen he was putting into them. He needed some place to rest for a short spell and regain his breath, but with the creature hot on his heels it would be very difficult to find one. He hoped his children and Jonathan were all right and he was especially worried about Elizabeth. But he didn't have enough time to wonder over her fate as he was swatted aside by the Scorpion King. The ex-Legionnaire smacked against a pillar and grunted in pain. He could have sworn a couple vertebrate had cracked with that hit, but he pulled himself to his feet with gritted teeth and determination.

He chanced a cursory glance at the design on the wall in the chamber he was in and frowned when he noticed that the design matched the tattoo on his hand. It was the drawing of a man who bore the mark of the Masonic Templars; only this man held the Scepter of Osiris.

Rick would have stayed to study the drawing for longer, but he heard the growl of the Scorpion King and was forced to dart away from the wall. He saw other pictures splayed across the golden surface of the wall that revealed the same man in several different poses: one where he held the scepter, another where he was reshaping it, and another where he was wielding a spear. Rick's eyes widened as he finally came to understand.

"Okay, now I'm a believer," he breathed. He ducked under the Scorpion King's tail and somersaulted to his feet. He ran out of the chamber to see his son and brother-in-law enter the room.

"Rick!" Jonathan yelled. His face paled when he saw the Scorpion King come into view right after his brother-in-law appeared. Both he and Alex screamed in horror.

"Jonathan! It's a spear! Your gold stick thing is a spear!" Rick shouted, dodging the Scorpion King's claws and tails.

Jonathan managed to take his eyes off the creature for a moment to look at his prized possession. He frowned and looked back to Rick while shouting, "It doesn't look like a spear to me!"

Rick rolled his eyes in spite of the situation and bellowed, "That's because it opens up into one!"

Jonathan still did not understand what Rick was trying to tell him. "Yes? And?"

Rick pantomimed pulling the scepter apart and fashioning a spear out of it. "Jonathan, listen! It opens up into a spear!"

"Give it to me," Alex commanded, snatching the scepter out of his uncle's hands. He began to quickly read through the inscriptions as Jonathan watched the cat and mouse game played by his brother-in-law and the monstrous creature known as the Scorpion King.

"Jonathan, why the hell did you bring Alex in here?" he heard Elizabeth yell. The man swiveled his head around to see his niece and sister come running towards them, their weapons coated with blood. Rick was too busy trying to swerve around the Scorpion King's claws to notice his daughter was safe and that his wife was alive.

"Evy, this trinket opens into a spear!" Jonathan told his sister.

Evelyn barely heard her brother as she and Elizabeth watched in horror as Rick was hurled through the air and landed spread-eagle on the ground. The poor man looked exhausted and any moment one of those claws could cleave him in two.

"Rick!" Evelyn cried out.

Rick looked up in bewilderment and his previously grimly exhausted expression changed to one of absolute joy. "Evy?" he cried, feeling tears wet his eyes. His beloved wife had been brought back to him! He did not care why or how, it only mattered that she was alive again and that renewed his confidence in himself.

"Oh, bloody hell! Dad, look out!" Elizabeth screamed, darting across the floor. She grabbed up a spear on her way and hurled it at the Scorpion King to avert its attention away from her father. The diversion worked though the spear had bounced harmlessly off its hard shell. It growled at her and she brandished her sword; her dark blue eyes glinted dangerously. She hoped it didn't notice her shaking exhaustion. Right now, she was basically bluffing the creature to give her father some time to do what he needed to do.

"Lizzie! What are you doing?" Rick yelled, terrified for her life.

"What's it look like I'm doing?" Elizabeth yelled back as she jumped over one of the swiping claws and ducked under another. "Hurry up with that bloody spear—oomph!" Elizabeth didn't see the staff swinging around to hit her in the head. She was batted down to the floor and her sword skittered out of her grasp. How she managed to remain conscious, she would never know, but she managed to turn over on her back and block the blow Imhotep was about to give her with a staff.

"So, you want to join your harlot, do you?" she drawled, kicking his feet out from under him. She staggered to her feet and dived to get her sword back before the Scorpion King's tail could swat her aside.

Elizabeth snatched it up from the ground and looked over to see how her uncle was faring with the scepter. She saw him twist its base to reveal a sharp tip. Her brother grabbed it and then pulled the tip out an additional few feet to turn it into a perfect spear. She shrieked at the advance of the Scorpion King and tripped over her own feet as she backed away. She slid out of the way of its claw just in time as it buried it in the wall.

"Hurry up, Jonathan!" Evelyn screamed.

Jonathan pushed his nephew aside saying, "Stand back, Alex. This is a man's work." He hurled the spear straight for the Scorpion King where it was turning around to come at Elizabeth again. Rick had run up to protect his daughter and they both had moved out of Jonathan's line of vision to give him a clear shot. It would have been a good shot, had Imhotep not stepped in to steal the sacred weapon out of mid-air with a triumphant snarl.

"Oh, come on," Elizabeth moaned. Was their luck really that bad?

She jumped at the exact same moment Imhotep threw the spear and caught it right before it could lodge itself inside the creature. She winked at Imhotep and said, "You're not the only one who still has a few tricks up his sleeve." It was too bad he could not understand her. And with a grin of complete malice for Imhotep, she tossed the spear to her father who thrust it right into the creature's chest.

Rick and the Scorpion King were hanging right over a deep cleft in the floor. Rick sneered at the monster and snarled, "Go to hell! And take your friends with you!" He thrust the weapon in deeper and the creature howled in agony before exploding in poof of black vapor. The force of its demise sent everyone sprawling to the floor; Elizabeth was thrown across the floor and sent tumbling into her uncle, mother, and brother.

At the death of its master, the pyramid began to shake; walls cracked and the ground split beneath them. As soon as Elizabeth, Jonathan, Evelyn, and Alex regained their footing they were nearly thrown off-balance again by the earthquakes that rocked the area. Elizabeth shoved her sword back into its scabbard and pulled Alex under her arms to shield him from flying debris. She looked frantically for her father across the cavern and cried out when she saw him and Imhotep hanging onto the broken edge of the floor over an endless drop into a dark abyss.

"Dad!" she and Alex screamed. Alex tried to go forward, but Elizabeth pulled him back. The ceiling was breaking apart and sending massive chunks crashing to the floor. It was a veritable death trap. Her father was doomed, she realized in despair. Why was this happening? She had regained one parent only to lose the other?

"Stay back! Don't come any closer!" Rick warned them in a hoarse voice. He yelled out to his wife and her brother, "Evy, Jonathan, get Alex and Lizzie out of here! Go now!"

"Rick!" Evelyn cried. She held onto the pillar in a death grip and turned her anguished eyes on her husband. She nodded to him and he screamed out, "Nooo!" to no avail. She started to run across the cavern with only one purpose in mind: to rescue the love of her life.

"Mum!" Alex and Elizabeth cried.

Jonathan too cried out for his younger sister to come back, but she would heed none of their desperate pleas. They watched with held breaths as she dodged the chunks of ceiling quite nimbly. Alex buried his face into his sister's arms, not being able to watch his mother dodge death. Elizabeth, herself, shut her eyes a few times as her heart pounded mercilessly against her battered ribcage. Her mother was insane, that was all there was to it. Only, she would have done the same thing had her mother not done it first. _I guess insanity runs in the family._

Evelyn dove for her husband, who was hanging precariously onto the edge. She held out her hands and helped to pull him up with a strength she had not known she possessed. Husband and wife, wrapped in each other's arms, backed away against a pillar to look down upon Imhotep.

"Anck-Sunamun! Help me!" he kept crying over and over, not realizing his Egyptian princess had perished by the Slayer's sword. When he finally realized she was not coming for him, he gave one last hateful, sad look at Evelyn and Rick before releasing his hold on the edge and letting himself fall into the abyss, back to the underworld where he belonged.

"Good riddance," Rick muttered.

"In case you didn't notice, this bloody place is falling apart! Can we go now!" their daughter yelled impatiently. She, Alex, and Jonathan had cheered in jubilation over Evelyn's heroic rescue of Rick, but they were still stuck in this place.

Rick and Evelyn joined up with the other three survivors and the five ran for their very lives as the golden pyramid collapsed in on itself all around them. They reached the entrance with the golden lion sentinels, but they were unable to go any further due to the massive whirlwind sending trees and other vegetation through the entrance and down to the heart of the pyramid.

"It's sucking everything in!" Elizabeth shouted, caught between incredulity and horror.

"How do we get out of here?" Evelyn yelled, gripping her husband's hand tightly.

Elizabeth's eyes caught sight of an opening in the side of the pyramid. Although it wasn't the most promising of escape routes, it was the best she could find and it would have to do. They didn't have a lot of options, after all. Without thinking, she hoisted Alex up into her arms and shouted, "Follow me!"

The five climbed through the crack and outside of the pyramid near the entranceway. Refuse was being drawn in all around them and they even saw some hissing pygmy skeletons being sucked in along with it. The entire oasis was being sucked in on itself. Elizabeth hoped Ardeth Bay and his comrades were safely away…if they were still alive at all.

"Climb!" she ordered, not knowing what else they could do.

The family clambered up the golden pyramid while the oasis swirled around them. When they reached the top near the giant diamond, the Slayer found herself all out of bright ideas. Not that any of her previous ideas had been very bright at all.

"We're trapped!" Evelyn cried, clutching desperately at Rick. Husband and wife held onto one another as Jonathan, Alex, and Elizabeth clutched at one another, preparing to die.

"Well, we had a good run. At least we saved the world," Jonathan offered as scant comfort.

"Hey!" someone above them yelled. It was so hard to hear that only Elizabeth heard it at first, but when the voice cried out again, the rest heard as well.

"Izzy?" Rick and Elizabeth voiced in surprise and relief. The greasy pilot's blimp was so far above them, they couldn't hope to board yet.

"Fancy seeing you lot here!" Izzy joked, as he lowered the dirigible so they could board.

Elizabeth threw Alex aboard first and then pulled herself up. She turned to help her mother up after her and then held out her hands for her father and uncle. Both men were hanging onto the netting and climbing up as Izzy drifted further up.

"Come on! Come on!" Elizabeth urged them.

Jonathan got his foot tangled in the netting and fell backwards, hanging by his foot from the flimsy hold. "Arrgggg! Pull me up! Pull me up!"

"Pull him up, O'Connell!" Izzy yelled to Rick.

"Hang on, Jonathan!" Rick yelled, as he grabbed onto his brother-in-law's boot. But Jonathan had other ideas in mind when he saw the giant diamond.

"Let me down! Let me down!" he screamed.

"Oh for Christ's sake, Uncle Jon! It's not worth your life, you idiot!" Elizabeth reprimanded in exasperation.

Jonathan grabbed the diamond and then said, "Okay, now pull me up!"

After dragging Jonathan to the deck, Izzy pulled a lever to make the dirigible go faster. Rick dropped to his feet against the side of the deck and breathed a sigh of relief. Evelyn ran up to Izzy and kissed him on the cheek. "Izzy! You wonderful, brilliant man! Thank you!" If his skin hadn't been so dark, they would have seen him blush.

Izzy then glanced over at Rick and Elizabeth slumped on the floor, looking as if they had been to hell and back. In a way, it was true. "So, who the hell you been messing with this time, O'Connell?"

Rick fluttered his hand and said between gasps for breath, "Oh you know…pissed off mummies, pygmies…giant bugs. The usual."

"I can't believe I'm actually missing vampires and demons," Elizabeth breathed. "Oh god, Roland is going to so pissed with me."

"Ah, well, he'll understand," Rick assured her. He forced himself to his feet to join his wife and son at the edge of the trawler to look down over the army of the Medjai. The black-clad men all raised their scimitars in salute and cheered the family O'Connell above them. One man on a horse stood aside from the group and he raised his face to the sky with a smile upon his handsome face. It was Ardeth Bay, bloodstained and battle-weary, but alive.

The Medjai leader raised his hand in salute and intoned, "_Harum bara shad._" He waved and called out, "Thank you again, my friends."

Rick, Evelyn, Alex, and Jonathan waved back, glad to see their friend had survived. Rick gave his wife a tender look and pulled her close. "Thought I had lost you there for a second," he said softly.

Evelyn looked up at him with those beautiful cobalt eyes and smiled. "For a moment there you did. Would you like to know what heaven looks like?"

Rick leaned in closer and whispered, "Later," before pushing his lips against her own in a passionate kiss. Jonathan and Alex simultaneously moaned, "Puh-leeze," and left the couple to their private moment.

Alex walked over to sit at the stern and stare out at the setting sun while Izzy pursued Jonathan.

"Um, that's mine," the greasy pilot declared, referring to the giant diamond.

"What? No it isn't," Jonathan retorted defensively.

"You stole my gold stick!"

"I did not!"

"Yes, you did!"

"I swear on my wife's life!"

"You ain't got a wife!"

Amidst the bickering, kissing, and conversations the Slayer slept peacefully on the wooden deck of the Izzy's dirigible as they made their way back home.

--------------------

_**Three Days Later**_

Roland Deavers sat in his large study pouring over volumes of ancient tomes in an absent-minded sort of way. A record played symphony music in the background as he copied down some notes on a pad of paper. Though he gave the impression of one who was utterly content with where he was and what he was doing, that impression couldn't be more wrong. He was riddled with anxiety over his slayer and the hasty message she had left to him over a week ago about returning to Egypt for personal reasons. He knew there was more to it than that, but he just couldn't fathom what it was. And now he was left here in London to imagine all kinds of horrible things that might be happening to his beloved charge.

_Damn that wretched girl! Leaving me here to worry myself into a frenzy_, he cursed in his mind over and over. He had tried to bury himself in ancient texts, but as he was fairly young for a watcher (in his early twenties) he had not yet established a solid interest in the perpetual studying of tomes. No, he would much rather be training with his slayer. That is, if she were here. She couldn't be dead because the Watchers Council would be sure to notify him. And if she were dead, he felt he would know. He would have to know.

He didn't hear the door to his house open or the soft footsteps creeping their way into his study. Elizabeth walked in, still bearing evidence from the ordeal in Egypt from the faint bruises and scratches on her face, arms, and legs. Her dark brown hair hung freely down her back and brushed down over her breasts in soft waves and she walked with a slight limp because of the broken ribs that had not fully healed yet. She grinned foolishly at her watcher trying to keep himself interested in all those books, but he kept averting his attention to the literature set beside him. It was most likely Poe or Dickens his green eyes kept turning to.

"Bored, are we?" she asked, deciding not to announce herself properly.

Roland jumped in surprise and turned around in his chair. His finely chiseled features glared at her from a curtain of golden hair, but she could detect the barely concealed relief and happiness in those emerald eyes. She saw how he fought to keep his face neutral and how he kept clearing his throat.

"Elizabeth. How cordial of you to finally show," he said flatly. Then he jumped up and hugged her so tight that she grimaced in pain slightly as her injured ribs protested. He noticed her stiffening in pain and pulled away with concern on his features. It was odd how she never noticed how handsome he was, but she figured that was because she was so relieved to be alive and to see him again.

"What happened to you? And why was I not there?" he asked. She winced at the betrayal she heard in his voice.

"Well, it's a rather long story," Elizabeth stammered.

Roland smiled rather humorlessly and gestured to the seat next to his. "It had bloody well better be a long story so you can explain why you left such a vague note and why you left me to wonder over whether you were dead or alive."

"First thing, you have to promise you won't get mad," Elizabeth said.

Roland closed his eyes and finally said, "What did you do?"

"Well, for starters, I…my family now knows about me being the Slayer. I sort of had to confess," Elizabeth said.

Roland groaned and rubbed his temples. "Why do I get the feeling that's not the worse of what happened?"

Elizabeth looked around and sat down while saying sardonically, "You might want to sit down and get yourself a strong drink because this could take a while."


End file.
